360 Degrees
by lamepora
Summary: Kurloz moves halfway across the country after his and Meulin's breakup left him in ruins. Enter Cronus, a friend of a friend of a friend who decides to take the stage and turn his life so far upside down that it might actually swing him back the right way again. Is this a good idea? Not really, but when has that ever stopped him? KurCro
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! I'm back with a new story and its Kurcro. Hell fuckin yes. Weird ship, I know, but I'm more into both of these nerds than I'd like to admit. Who's ready for some fishbones lovin ? I know I am. Enjoy! x**

Your name is Kurloz Makara and you have no idea how your crazy asshole of a best friend convinced you to move in with him.

Mituna Captor had been your best friend since way back in middle school. When he moved away a couple of years later you never lost contact. Sure, you didn't spend as much time together as you used to, but one of you would always make the effort to come round and visit in the school holidays. Except, that wasn't a problem anymore. You were now nineteen and ready to live your life as a real, functioning adult.

But honestly, you had no idea how to do that.

So here you were, unpacking numerous items of clothing, most of which are black, into the cabinet of Mituna's spare room. You're actually quite surprised that he's doing better than you- you had always assumed that you would be the one with the apartment, and the girlfriend, and the steady job, but no. You had to come here for his help, instead.

Not that you're bitter about it. Okay, so you're a little bitter about it. Your girlfriend, well, now ex-girlfriend, had left you not two weeks ago. This was the prompt for you to get you act together in the first place- who needed romance anyway? Nobody successful ever married their high school sweetheart.

You're coming up with excuses again. You totally would have married her, and been damn happy about it. Meulin was perfect in literally ever way, for you at least. The first week after the break up was spent sulking in your bedroom about how you were never going to find anyone ever again who could tolerate you, and listening to loud, angry rap music to try and clear your head. This was when your asshole little brother stepped in and told you to, and I quote, 'get a life, already.'

Who knew such simple, cliché words could have such an impact?

For about twenty seconds you found yourself inspired to burn the photo album you'd put together of your life back home- you and Meulin had made it together just before graduation, which had been a nice thing to share with your friends group. Gamzee wouldn't let you, however, and decided he'd give it to Meulin when she came over to collect her things.

It had killed you inside, compiling that little box of stuff shed left in your house. A couple shirts, the Arctic Monkeys CD she lent you and you didn't like, three tubes of dark coloured lipstick you deny having tried on, and more hairpins than you could count. There was a lot more stuff in there, you're sure, because it took you three whole days of slugging around your room to get all her stuff together, but you can't remember half of it right now. There was a dildo in there somewhere, but that wasn't really worth noting.

And you're kind of glad Gamzee didn't let you burn your memories, because now Meulin could have them, and you don't think that memories burn up her head and fill her lungs with acid like they do to you, so all in all it was a nice sentiment. You hope she's happier, now she's not with you.

Mituna's girlfriend is great. Or should you say, 'radical'. She lives on the other side of town and goes to the same college as Mituna does, and when you met her for the first time she talked at you for a good seven minutes before realising you were mute. It was funny to you, at least, but she was mortified. You like Latula.

It's just hard to believe that Mituna, who you had thought you'd be looking after way ito his late forties, had his life so sorted. And then there's you, who cried on the drive over here because you didn't want to leave your brother alone in that house with that shitlord you call a father. Gamzee wouldn't let you stay, though, spewing inspirational bullshit about 'finding your own path', and 'becoming who you're supposed to be'. You swear that kids high off his ass half the time anyway.

Mituna signs something at you after getting your attention- usually to do that he waves all big and crazy with his arms, which is weird because he always pretends like your deaf even though he knows better. It's kind of cute, actually, but you're pretty sure he could be less obnoxious about it.

See, Mituna happens to suffer from Asperger's syndrome, which basically cuts him out of the loop in most social situations. You'd feel bad for him, but he seems to be doing well in life so far, so you can't bring yourself to feel too bad about your best friends disability. His Asperger's compromises his existence about as much as being selectively mute compromises yours. That is to say, a fair bit, but mostly your friends are cool about it.

Oh yeah, your friends. Those were some faces you were never going to see again. You always had a weird issue with friendship to begin with, and now that you had moved halfway across the damn country, you weren't in the best way to keep contact. It's not like you were popular anyway, but you still felt a little guilty for taking off like that, especially without saying goodbye. Gamzee would do that for you, you suppose.

What was Mituna signing? You kind of zoned out there for a second and he looks frustrated. Better get your wicked listen on.

**::What?::** You sign at him apologetically. He perks up when he knows you're paying attention.

**::Latula's having a party tonight, so obviously I'm going::** he leaves then, and you're a little put out.

First night of living with your best friend and he's going out to a party. Nice. When Gamzee had told you to 'get out there and let loose', you don't think this is the lifestyle he imagined. Maybe if you were going to the party- no that stupid. You hate parties. People just give you funny looks and you spend the whole time getting drunk in the corner and Meulin can't even hear the music so what's the point-

Fuck. No. Forget Meulin. That's not what you should be worrying about. Instead you follow Mituna into the kitchenette, where he's busy intently watching the toaster. It pops and he squeals, jumping back before leaning in to inspect the toast, finding an appropriate angle at which to remove it from the toaster without getting burnt.

You watch this for a while in good humour- you always enjoyed Mituna's strange approach to everyday things. You tap him on the shoulder and he turns to face you, surprised that you had witnessed that small battle with the toaster. You raise both hands to your shoulders and shrug.

He looks confused for a second, and then starts laughing. He apparently decides to register that you can hear this time because he talks to you while buttering his toast "Oh thit, thorry Kurloth. You're invited, too. Fuck, I can't believe I forgetted that bit." He takes one bite of the toast and looks excited "You can meet all our friendth! Actually, thome of them aren't my friendth, jutht athholeth, but it'th thtill cool, I gueth."

**::What are your friends like?::** You ask, curious.

He seems to think for a second, scratching at his bright blonde mane of hair. It's not as big as yours, of course, but is a lot less cared for. Your dreadlocks are fucking huge and immaculate and you pride yourself on just how great they look. But enough about your hair, more about the people you might be meeting tonight.

"Well, you know Latula. She's toes rad." He snickers and shoves a bunch of toast in his mouth, deciding to speak with his hands instead.

**::Rufioh and Horuss will be there. They're cool. Also gay together and kind of creepy, but cool. You won't like Rufioh, he's not your type of human::** he shakes his head sadly, as if this is some kind of huge deal **::Porrim will come, and she's super nice and will probably talk to you for a long time. Also single::** he winks **::Meenah and Aranea are in lesbians with eachother and super crazy, Damara is kind of hot but don't hit on her because she will beat you up::** he falters here, trying to remember if there's anyone he's forgetting** ::oh, and Porrim will bring Kankri. He'll love you because you're supposedly 'less able' and that's a good talking point::**

You consider yourself blessed with the knowledge of how eloquent and smart Mituna is when he talks with his hands. Most people assume he's dumb because of his disorder and lisp, but you know for a fact that he's a lot smarter than anyone gives him credit for.

He finishes the last of his toast and throws his plate in the sink, narrowly avoiding breaking the china. You figure it's a good thing that you're going to be living with him from now on- probably a lot less accidents around the house "And if _anyone_ inviteth Cronuth I'm _thpit on_ him. Fucking, fucking _pith _on hith _foot. _Fucking- wha… Fuck_. Fuck."_

Mituna's hands flew into his hair, pulling at it with more force than necessary. You pull his hands away in an attempt to stop him hurting himself, and instead he latches his iron grip onto your wrists.

"Thorry. My wordth got weird again." When he looks at you there's shame in his eyes and you decide that this is a good time to hug him. Mituna doesn't like physical contact, and has very few exceptions. Namely: you, Lautula, and his brother Sollux who you've met a few times and decided that while he obviously cares a great deal for Mituna, he isn't very good at looking after him.

By the time you leave you're kind of looking forward to the party. You helped Mituna pick out some clothes after twenty minutes of arguing that he looks _fine _and can _totally _just go in the Pikachu onesie he's been wearing all day. He insists that he wants to look nice for Latula and so you dig through his wardrobe, throwing some jeans and a stripy yellow sweater in his direction, along with some bumblebee themed boxers just because it made you laugh. He doesn't question this, taking off his onesie so fast you forget to avert your eyes, and outwardly cringe at the sight of a cackling, butt-naked Mituna.

You're out of the room in seconds, smiling at the jumbled taunts and curses from the other room. Five minutes later Mituna barges in on you getting changed, and insists that he gets to pick out your clothes, because you chose for him and it wasn't fair.

So sitting in the driver's seat of the car you swear you only just got out of, you head off, Mituna giving you directions to Latula's place the entire way. What did he dress you in, you wonder? Well, he'd already decided for you that you were going to hit on Porrim tonight, and so dressed you 'appropriately' (he wouldn't let you wear the skeleton suit. You love the skeleton suit). This consisted of the tightest black jeans you own, and a patterned green t-shirt he'd pulled from his own closet. It was far too small for you and was way too tight even up against your lanky frame, so your hipbones were just about on show. This was finished off with that leather jacket you often forget you still have, and Mituna loudly declares that you look 'sexy'.

You completely disagree. You'd rather be wearing the skin-tight leather skeleton costume you're so fond of, but Mituna insists that he's not taking someone in a gimp suit to his girlfriend's party so that's that. You're there in under ten minutes- she may live all the way across town, but it's a pretty small town. You'd officially upgraded from shithole Ohio to shithole California beach town. You're a little anxious about this party.

People don't tend to like you. You're weird. You wanted to wear a skeleton suit out in public. You mentally slap yourself- why is Mituna the one normalising you?

"Hey Tuna- Oh shit! It's Kurloz! My main man, what's goin' on?"

Latula opens the door to her house- it's big, so you assume she still lives with her parents- and greets you with more enthusiasm than you could probably force out in your entire life. You give her a double thumbs up and she takes this as an invitation to hug you, which you don't particularly mind. Mituna pulls her straight off of you and demands some attention in the form of a kiss, which leaves you standing there awkwardly until they're finished.

"We're going to thet him up with Porrim." Mituna whispers and then giggles as you slap a hand across your forehead. You don't actually want to be set up with anyone- you kind of just got out of a three year relationship.

Latula giggles with him and you just kind of smile at them. Luckily, you remembered that little notebook you brought with you while travelling, and proceed to scribble out a message in pencil. It reads_: It's his idea. I'm not looking for partners at the moment._ She looks over it and raises an eyebrow, but then just slaps your arm and drags you further inside.

"Oh come on, that doesn't mean you can't talk to a pretty girl, does it?" she questions and you shrug, allowing yourself to succumb to the loud music and chatty partygoers.

You briefly wonder what you've gotten yourself into.

**Next chapter will be centred around Cronus, probably. So, what do you think, should I continue this? Please leave a review if you like the story so far, because it literally takes about 20 seconds and really boosts my confidence.**

**Thanks for reading! X -Jak**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the first Cronus chapter ^^ Thanks for the lovely reviews, guys, it really means a lot 3**

**TRIGGER WARNING: suicide mention**

Your name is Cronus Ampora and you can believe you've been invited to this party.

Latula hates you, you're pretty sure. Or at least Mituna hates you, and that's enough of a reason for Latula to not invite you. Maybe she's getting sick of Mituna or something, wouldn't be hard, I mean, maybe she's finally come around and is showing a little interest in you. You assure yourself that this is a highly likely scenario and that you should definitely try hitting on her tonight.

Three metres away from her front door and you decide otherwise. The last three months have been what one would call emotionally crippling. The main example of your inner turmoil being a tragically failed suicide attempt that you're trying your absolute hardest not to think about right now, and you don't think you could handle a rejection tonight. Well, you could, but you've always kind of had a crush on Latula and getting thrown out of her party might just kill you.

As in, literally kill you. Maybe you shouldn't drink tonight. Maybe you should keep to yourself, or just talk to Kankri, or maybe you should just turn away from this door right now and go home.

It's a pretty big house, not as big as yours, of course, but big. You hesitate to knock, but see a couple of people walking down the driveway behind you and there's no way you're going to let anyone see you standing here like an idiot. You spend an additional second considering whether you should just turn around and run away, but your hands betray you and you knock instead.

The door opens and the broad smile that Latula always wears twitches. Yeah, you really shouldn't have shown your face here.

"Oh, hey, Cronus. Decided to come after all, huh?" she says sympathetically. Why is she looking at you like that? Oh.

She knows.

You know she talks to Kankri, because you also know that Kankri has a weird crush on her that he vehemently denies no matter how much pressure you put on him to tell you. He must have told her in some desperate attempt to be momentarily interesting. He was always like that, and you curse yourself for confiding that kind of secret in him. Well, at least that would explain why she invited you.

You feel like you should go yell at Kankri, or break down crying, or just fuck over social convention and walk straight out into the road. When you told Kankri about your, uh, attempt, you shared that secret in confidence. How the fuck dare he-

You've been silent for at least seven seconds, and Latula is just looking at you. She looks like she's torn between asking hats wrong and knowing just how awfully that could turn out "Cronus?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I came tonight. Hope you don't mind." You try to smile at her, one of your usual cocky grins, but you're pretty sure it just came out desperate and ugly.

Her smile turns soft and the last thing you want to do is have her pity you right now "Hey, I invited you, didn't I? Come in, bro. Kankri's already here."

You don't even want to look at Kankri. You don't want to, but you know you will, because he's the only person at this party that you know can stand you. Most of the people within the group you socialise with kind of hate your guts. The inside of Latulas house is nice, the kind of house that normal families live in to go about their normal lives. You wouldn't be caught dead living in a place like this.

You're surprised that she sticks by your side, walking you all the way to the drinks table, She offers you a beer and who are you to say no? Looks like you're drinking tonight after all. It's loud and hot, and you don't recognise half the people. Latula tries to make some awkward conversation with you, to which you naturally say something horribly inappropriate and she just kind of points you in the direction of Kankri, who can be seen lecturing Porrim and a dark skinned man in a leather jacket that you've never seen before.

Stupid. Latula was being nice to you for once, even if it was pity induced, and you blew it. She disappears and you turn back to the drinks table where you pour a considerable amount of vodka into your beer. It tastes like absolute shit, but you plan on drinking it anyway. You don't want to be sober right now.

Kankri greets you with the same surprised, awkward air as Latula had, except slightly less so since he'd known you for longer. He must have known you'd jump at any opportunity to be around people- basically any place you might get laid. This highly contradicts the fact that you are a total virgin.

"Oh, Cronus, how nice of you to make an appearance. Latula did invite you, I assume? Not just showing up rogue this time?" He pauses, smiling to himself f as if he'd just made a joke "I've just been telling Porrim and her new friend here about the benefits of vegan leather over the much less savoury cow skin that some people insist on wearing, though, considering your wardrobe, I doubt this would be a conversation that would hold much interest to you. Anyway, how was the journey over here? Did you get your car fixed up?"

You take a moment to digest all that speech and try to keep yourself from sighing "Yeah, I went down to Zahhaks garage and fixed my baby. You know, for a guy that doesn't like me, he sure gives me a lot of discounts."

"Fascinating. Now, I was just about to hear Porrims take on the leather issue before you showed up, so now I'd like to take the time to hear her talk, thank you." He looks to Porrim expectantly, who grimaces.

"Kankri, you know I'm a vegetarian. Of course I don't like leather." She says, bored and clearly more interested in looking at the silent stranger who has so far spent this time staring confusedly at Kankri. You don't blame him. Or her, for that matter. You could definitely spend some time looking at this guy.

You take pity on her, however, and convince Kankri to come sit outside with you so you can smoke. He absolutely detests your smoking and glares at you for the duration of the walk outside, but calms down when he notices how nice the back garden is. There are a lot of fruit trees, one of which had a wonky looking tree house sat uneasily on its branches. He talks to you while you ignore him and focus on your cigarette. This is how most of your hangout sessions with him go, but tonight you're being extra quiet because _he told Latula_. You actually can't believe he would do a thing like that.

Well, you can kind of believe it. For all Kankri talks about 'triggers' and all that social justice love-thy-neighbour kind of stuff, he's really pretty inconsiderate. But this is not what you are focusing on. Right now you're thinking about how beer and vodka should never be mixed (literally never. It's disgusting) and how you actually don't feel like hitting on anyone tonight. The more time you spend here the less you want to. You know that none of these people like you, and there's no chance in hell anyone you know is even remotely interested in dating you, so why are you even here? Nobody actually wants you around. You decide not to tell Kankri this, because he's incredibly obtuse and will spit it back in your face.

"Cronus, it's rather cold out here, don't you think? Let's go back inside." He insists, standing up and wrapping his arms around themselves. You look at him, briefly thinking that he looked kind of cute all huddled up like that.

"Nah, you go ahead." You wave him off. This is one of those rare times where you actually feel better without Kankri around.

You're there for another few minutes in which you smoke another cigarette. As you get up to leave, however, the back door slams open and lanky figure quickly shuts it again, pressing his back to the wall and sliding down it. His head is rested against his knees, and you immediately feel your interest spark.

So instead of going back inside and listening to Kankri talk some more, you sit back on your bench and watch a stranger shiver on the floor. He looks up and spots you staring, and you both promptly look away. Apparently he changes his mind and gets up, and in a few quick strides he's in front of you.

It's the same hot guy in the jacket that you had seen talking to Porrim not twenty minutes ago. Those ridiculous dreadlocks he has his hair knotted into create a bizarre silhouette in the moonlight. He points to the packet of cigarettes sticking out of your pocket and you oblige with a short 'sure'. He lights up and sits down next to you, looking tense and weird.

Looks like you're going to have to start the conversation, this time, because this is way too awkward "So, you know Porrim, huh?" you ask as casually as possible, which is pretty casual. You're actually quite good at talking to strangers.

He gives you a long sideways glance and says nothing, just sits there smoking your cigarette. Um, rude. You try again.

"You thinking about trying it on with her? She's pretty hot. You are too, though, so you're at least in with a chance. I mean, I can't count how many times she's turned me down. Still a cool gal, though, I guess."

He still doesn't reply, just kind of shrugs and gestures something with his hands. The idea hits you that he might be deaf or something. He pulls out a notebook from his back pocket and scribbles something down, handing it to you. It reads: '_she's not my type'_, in clear, cursive writing. You scoff.

"Its_ Porrim_, she's _everyone's_ type." He shakes his head and takes the notebook back, writing you another message.

'_That doesn't mean I want to sleep with her'_. You personally can't believe that someone, even this strange guy sitting next to you, doesn't want to sleep with Porrim. It just doesn't compute.

"Well," you start again, kind of surprised someone's tolerated your company for so long "Is there anyone here you're interested in? I could always talk to them for you, or something, since you don't seem to be too good at that."

You mentally slap yourself. That was probably completely inappropriate to say to someone who was… mute? Yeah, mute. That was the no talking one, right? Either way you have officially discovered that you repel people just as easily when you're not flirting with them as when you are.

But to your surprise he just gives you a strange smile and shakes his head. He gets this determined look on his face and goes back to his notebook. This time after he scribbles his message he rips out the paper and gives it to you.

Before you even have time to look at it he's gone, striding away into the light and warmth of the party. You stare after him as he leaves, way too focused on those tight jeans. You wish you could look that good in jeans that tight.

You look down at the paper where to your shock, a number is written down with a side note of 'I could probably use a person to talk for me. Or to me. Or whatever. I made this weird, didn't I?'

No, he didn't make it weird at all. This marks the first ever time you've ever gotten a phone number at a party, even if it was just an offer of friendship. You have been offered friendship.

With a new spring in your step and a cocky grin you didn't think you could pull tonight, you follow him inside for another drink. Preferably one that didn't taste like literal shit, this time.

**So that's whats happening now. Casual friendship that I can assure you will get weird. Yay ^^ reviews are always appreciated so please do if you think this is any good 3**

**Thanks for reading! - Jak**


	3. Chapter 3

**Aaaaaaand welcome back to this obscure pairing that only me and possibly 3 other people actually ship. Get ready for a filler chapter and Kurloz being lame. Ayy**

Your name is Kurloz Makara and you're still thinking about that idiot from the party.

In all honesty you weren't expecting to make anything close to a friend that night, seeing as you got stuck between an (admittedly hot) girl you weren't particularly interested in and the most obnoxious lecturer you've ever met for most of the night. Mituna pretty much abandoned you, but you don't mind. He stayed over in the end, insisting that a drunk Latula was a fun Latula and that he was going to 'get it on' that night. You don't want to think about Mituna in that situation or any close to it.

So after your brief encounter with a friendly stranger (who you gave your number. That was so weird what the hell) you decided to go in and drink more. He actually followed you, much to your shock, and challenged you to a little drinking game.

Every couple you see making out, that's a shot. Every time someone falls on the dance floor, that's a shot. Every time someone declares that 'this is their song', you guessed it, that's a shot, and so on. A couple of guys joined in later, some guy with a bright red mohawk and his sweaty boyfriend, but they were already super drunk and mohawk guy had to go to the bathroom and puke before anything got interesting.

The end result was your new friend passing out from extreme levels of alcohol consumption. Luckily, you could hold your drink and officially won the game. Obnoxious lecturing guy came over and made a fuss, using your friends phone to call someone (you think his brother) to come pick him up at about three in the morning. You helped wake him up and walk him to the car where a tired and pissed off kid sat in the front seat.

He said he would call you. At least, you think he did, he was kind of slurring and drunk off his ass, but the sentiment was nice. You just nodded along and did up his seatbelt, bidding him a wave goodbye as they drove off into the night. You lost interest in the party after that, telling Mituna you were going home before you were sick on yourself.

You have no idea how you drove home so safely, but even still, you woke up in your own bed with a crippling hangover and no motivation to move.

So you're just lying here, thinking about that guy and whether he's going to call you.

Well, text, preferably. You can't see a phone call working very well in your favour. You sort of question your interest in this possible friendship and whether he was funny or you were just drunk. Does it matter? Well, actually, yeah, it does. You like funny people. Like Mituna. Mituna's funny.

Friendly stranger was funny too, in his own crazy, self-depreciating sort of way. He made a lot of cracks at his own apparent lack of friends and how he was probably invited out of pity. Pity for what, you don't know. All you know is that you sort of feel bad for this guy whose name is still a mystery to you.

It's four in the afternoon and you still don't feel like getting up. You've had your hand down your pants for the last half hour, but the boredom-induced wank session doesn't seem to be going anywhere. You don't think you really like drinking all that much. It just makes you feel like shit the next day.

At five you decide you're hungry and could probably do with drinking some water. Your mouth is dry as all hell. The meal you consume consists of toast with peanut butter, a Mars bar you found in the cupboard and six cups of coffee, which you regret drinking a little while later when the jitters set in and you're shaking while watching repeat episodes of children's cartoons, which you're especially fond of. You love animation. Cartoons are cool.

Around seven Mituna comes home looking at least two hundred percent better than you feel. He's got this big grin on his face and won't shut up about how great the party was last night.

"And gueth who got laid." he says while cooking up some instant ramen noodles. Two hands click into little pistols, and he pretends to shoot them at you "Thith guy. Me. Right here."

Again, you don't like thinking about Mituna anywhere below the belt. You laugh and congratulate him anyway, even if it was just for having sex with his girlfriend, which you are sure isn't that great of an accomplishment. He asks you how it went with Porrim and you sigh.

::I wasn't up for it. She's nice, but not my type:: you inform him. He's not impressed by this.

"It'th Porrim. Sheth everyones type." he snorts and refocuses on his noodles.

You can't help but laugh a little, having heard exactly the same thing from your friend last night. It's a shame you weren't so instantly attracted to her like everyone else seems to be. You reckon if you hadn't just gotten out of a three year relationship it would be different, but still, here you are.

The two of you watch old tacky Pokemon movies for a while, Mituna's running commentary being mainly on how Gen 1 was overrated, to which you disagree. Gen 1 was cool. Pokemon are cool. At eight your phone vibrates and you practically jump off the couch to get to it, grinning manically as you read over the message.  
><em><br>__Yoooooo, it's Cronus. Guy from the party. Vwhat up. Never got your name so ?_

Cronus. Okay. You can remember that. A brief thought runs through your head that maybe you should wait an hour or so before replying, make this guy think you have a life. But then, you really don't have a life at all outside of Mituna and this apartment. Why bother lying when you could text your new friend instead?

You: _It's Kurloz. What goes on, my brother?_

That sounded cool and casual, right? You quickly save the number as 'Cronus' before the reply comes.

Cronus: _Literally nothing. Bitch of a hangovwer but vwhat else is newv lmao_

You: _Haha same I only got up an hour ago_

That was kind of a lie, but not completely untrue. An exaggeration, at the most.

Cronus: _Siiiiiiiik I vwas vway drunker than u last night tho_

You: _tru lmao you passed out on me and everything_

Why are you so awkward. Jesus fucking Christ that was a weird thing to say. This is why you have no friends.

Cronus: _yeah haha._

Oh god he's realised you're a freak. Abort mission, terminate friendship, ect. This was a stupid idea anyway.

"Who are you texting?" Mituna asks from the other end of the couch.

::Nobody:: you sign. He gives you a funny look but ignores it, going back to watching whatever crappy animated movie he'd put on now. This is when your phone vibrates again, and to your surprise, it's not hatemail.

Cronus: _soooo I vwas vwondering if you vwanted to hang out or vwhatevwer ?_

You doubt the authenticity of the message and turn off your phone. When you turn it on again the message is still there. The only doubt you have now is whether his VW typing quirk is cute or stupid.

You: _yeah, sure. where you wanna go?_

Cronus: _vwell most people around here hang out at the beach_

You kind of forgot that this was a beach town. It's not like you're particularly interested in sand or the sea or whatever. You didn't actually want to move here in the first place.

You: _cool. we won't be swimming, right?_

Cronus: _no vway it's fuckin cold out. you couldn't pay me enough to get in that vwater_

That was a stupid question and you know it. It's September you dimwit. However at the time of asking you were more concerned about how weird your body looked in a bathing suit (which is pretty weird. You have a bad case of protruding ribs).

You: right, of course

The two of you decided on a time to meet and he abruptly stopped texting. You're sure you put him off somehow. Put him off of what, you don't know, but there was some serious doubt going on in your head that this friendship was going to work out. Why were you even getting so worked up about this? It's just some guy you're going to hang out with. It's not a big deal or anything.

An idea passes through your head that this could be considered a date. All that would be needed in addition to your plans would be a little romantic intention and boom: it's a date. You shudder and throw that idea away immediately. This wasn't going to get weird, it's just that you've never treated friendship so formally before.

You bid Mituna goodnight and head off to your bedroom, finding yourself remarkably tired after a short day of doing absolutely nothing. How sad. What a stupid waste of a day. You didn't even finish masturbating earlier.

Before you even start thinking about that you get rid of the idea. You know if you do it now you're going to think about Meulin, and that's not something you feel like dealing with. So you take a nap instead.

The nap turns from a twenty minute lie down into a six hour sleeping marathon. You never get that much sleep. What's with all the sleeping lately? You've spent far too much time in this bed for somebody who moved in two days ago. Maybe you're depressed.

That could easily be the answer, you think as your gaze upon the closed curtains of the small bedroom. Break up with the most wonderful human being you've ever met, move to a shithole beach town just as it starts to get cold and make yourself look awkward in front of strangers at a party. Maybe you should just stay inside forever and succumb to the depression.

No, don't be silly, you have a date with Cronus this afternoon.

It's not a date. God fucking damn it if you think that one more time... whatever. It's not like he's able to hear your random uncomfortable thoughts anyway.

You decide to get dressed in something that wasn't underwear and a baggy sweater. By underwear you mean the breifs you've been wearing for the last two days because it never crossed your mind that maybe you stink. You change your mind half way through dressing yourself and take a shower.

Mituna's shower is filthy and has way too many empty bottles of shampoo. Not that you would use it anyway- you ignore the sudden impulse to rub shampoo into your dreadlocks. That's the worst idea you've had all day. You get out and dress yourself in...

Skeleton suit? Is that acceptable attire to go meet somebody? Maybe not, considering you just met the guy. If even Mituna hates your clothes, you've got to look pretty weird. You dig out your ripped jeans and that shirt you like with the ribcage printed on it. Nice. Casual. Add your boots and black snakeskin jacket (which is the coolest item of clothing you have ever owned), and you look pretty badass.

It's now that you decide to check the time, and see that you have four hours before you even have to think about leaving the house. But you look so good. This is stupid- you wish you slept for longer.

Instead you kick back in front of the TV, turning it on and ignoring Mituna's snoring from the next room.

**I love writing texts. These two are such dorks oh my god. Next chapter they go to hang out and it'll probably get weird. Gotta love weird. Should I do the next one in Kurloz or Cronus POV? Plz tell me I actually cant decide T_T**

**Thanks for reading ! – Jak x**


	4. Chapter 4

**Omg this chapter is so long wtf :v**

**So yeah I got 2 votes for a Cronus centric chapter and 0 for Kurloz (can u guess the fan favourite lmao) so here's more of these idiots drinking and doing weird shit. Enjoy ! x**

"Cronus Ampora, where in the fuck do you think you're going?"

Your name has already been stated and you think you just pissed your pants a little.

Mister Ampora (more commonly known as 'Dualscar' because of the two lightning shaped scars that ran parallel down his face, but that was a story for another time), was not a man to be fucked with. In fact, he was pretty much considered 'unfuckable' by the majority of the town's residents. This could be meant as a 'not to be messed with' kind of way or a 'don't sleep with that guy' kind of way. You're pretty sure you inherited the second one from him, at least.

Either way you turn around to face him, standing in the kitchen doorway in all of his 6'2" glory. He's only in his sweatpants, since he doesn't have work today, and his totally ripped upper body instils a fear in you that only your father could.

"I'm goin' out, pa." you tell him, shifting the bag on your back slightly, the bottle of vodka you have hidden clinking a bit.

"Like hell you are. And quit it with that stupid fake accent. Nobody's gonna sleep with you while you're still on that 50's kick." he scalded, pulling a list of chores out of his pocket.

Your dad really knows how to cut you down to size. The accent you put on is cool in your opinion. The smarmy British accent you and your family came over here with is the most irritating thing you have ever heard, so obviously you needed a new one. No matter what he said, you will defend your greaser accent to the death.

You sigh "Why can't I go out now?" you hate that it's so much easier to talk without putting your accent on. Ugh. Fucking English and their shitty voices.

"Because," he starts, mocking and puerile "You're 21, don't have a job, and can do some fucking housework for once."

"But dad, I got plans." you reply, calm as possible. It's better not to yell back at your dad, he gets scary.

He scoffs "With who? That whiney Vantas kid? No way. Before you even think about leaving this house you're going to clean the kitchen."

"Dad, I gotta meet my friend. I don't know him that well yet and I can't be late-"

Dualscar picks up the spatula lying on the side and smacks it hard against the countertop, the harsh noise echoing throughout the kitchen. He looks ready to fight. This shuts you up immediately, a cold fear settling in the pit of your stomach.

"How clean does it have to be?" you ask, resigning to submission. It's better to just do what he says now instead of paying for the consequences later. Looks like you're going to be late for Kurloz.

"Unload the dishwasher and put everything away, wipe down the counters, take out the rubbish. Then you can go. And be back before ten or you'll miss dinner." he spits on the counter beside him and waltzes away, already bored of this conflict. Stupid piece of shit dad.

You sigh and immediately get to work. In the end it only takes you twenty minutes or so, but that's because you rushed like crazy. You hate being late to anything, and when it's a meeting with someone you hardly know being late isn't exactly the best impression.

It's not that cold out but you still wear your classic leather jacket. It could be the middle of summer and you'd still wear it- that thing is sacred to you. You and Kurloz had agreed to meet at four, but now it was half four and you'd only just made it to the beach front. Walking down the coastline was starting to feel hopeless, but eventually you spotted him sitting on a pile of rocks by the sea front.

In one hand he carried a half-drunk bottle of faygo, in the other a recently stubbed out cigarette. He's so busy staring out into the ocean that he doesn't notice you until you sit down next to him. He jumps a little at your arrival, big dark eyes wary and accusing. He doesn't need to write anything down for you to know that he's pissed.

"Yeah, I know, sorry I'm late." you pull out your own pack of cigarettes and light one up. He immediately takes one without asking "Wow, rude."

He rolls his eyes and you both smoke in silence for a while. It's kind of awkward, but you don't really mind. It's just nice to be quiet- to be around someone that isn't Kankri for once.

Kurloz pulls out his little notebook and scribbles you a message. _'What are we doing today? Conversation isn't exactly my strong suit.'_

You're not sure if it's appropriate to laugh at his disability, even if he's making fun of himself, but you do anyway "I'm cool doing whatever. Got some of this, though."

You pull the bottle of vodka from your bag, presenting it to him with a grin. He cracks a smile and shakes his head, snatching it from your hands and unscrewing the lid. Woah, he's more enthusiastic than you thought he would be. At the party you hadn't gotten the impression that he likes drinking, but then again this was kind of awkward and alcohol could always fix that.

He pours a considerable amount into his bottle of faygo, and while he does this you study his face. He's wearing eyeliner. Huh. You always thought eyeliner looked weird on guys, but it kind of works for him.

He hands you back the bottle and you drink it straight, determined not to cringe at the taste as to appear less of a dork than you really are. You can't help the wince, and you know he notices because he does this cute little silent laugh thing and now you feel dumb.

"You laughin' at me?" you accuse, a little too offended for such a minor thing. He nods and drinks some from his bottle. It hardly affects him and you're mildly jealous of his superior withstanding towards alcohol consumption. God, you're such a dork. Why is this guy hanging out with you again?

You lift yourself from the rocky ground and stand to face him "C'mon, let's walk down to the pier. Probably some girls hanging around there."

He tilts his head to the side and raises one eyebrow. You instantly become defensive "Yeah, I know you're not into dating or whatever, but I am. And you'd make a great wingman. Nice and quiet. Won't fuck up my chances."

Kurloz silently laughs again and writes something else down for you. It simply says _'What chances?'_

"Fuck you. Why are you wearing eyeliner?" is that the best reply you can come up with? Oh god what is wrong with you.

_'Makes me look sexy.'_ he writes, smirking up at you from the sand.

"Why do you need to be sexy? Tryin' to lure me in, huh?" you accuse, unable to keep the grin from your face. He starts laughing again and lifts himself from the ground with surprising grace "C'mon, I'll indulge your nasty-ass crush on me. Romantic walk on the beach sound nice?"

He shoves you about a foot closer to the ocean, the smile on his face drastically contrasting with his scrunched up eyebrows. He looks like he's trying to act annoyed but fails. This is nice. It's not often you can make jokes like that without getting slapped or whatever. It's just one of the many drawbacks to your friends hating you.

The two of you wander down the beach front, occasionally shoving each other. It's juvenile and dumb, but for some reason you're enjoying it. As much as you've labelled Kurloz as 'friend-only', you're kind of appreciating the excuse to touch his chest. From the brief seconds in which you make contact while pushing each other, you have already assessed that he's bony as fuck but that's kind of hot. That's bad, isn't it? You really need to get out of this 'fuck everything that moves' mind-set.

The pier is small and doesn't go out very far. It's more used for docking the smaller boats in the area, since just down the way is the harbour where most people go to hang out. You don't have a lot of friends so you don't go there too often, but you know that cool people like Meenah and Rufioh hang out under the pier. So that's where you're going to sit with Kurloz and your bottle of vodka. You're going to be cool for once.

As soon as you get there Kurloz is looking around the complicated wooden structure, scratching at the back of his neck and looking thoughtful. You steal his faygo-vodka mix and drink the majority of it while he wanders around, seemingly enthralled by the pier and the beams around him.

"What are you looking for?" you ask, amused by his interest. He jogs back over and snatches back his bottle, finishing its contents and looking pleased with himself. He then steals your bag and runs off with it "Kurloz, what the fuck?"

Before you realise what he's doing he's already climbing up one of the lower beams, long spidery limbs perfectly able to pull himself up and into the higher parts of the structure. You just watch for a while, dumbfounded, but then he waves you over to join him and you figure, hey, what the hell?

You don't even struggle that much. You aren't all that great at climbing, but you're pretty ripped so you're up there in no time. There's a lot of cross hatched beams along the sides that hold the pier up, but there's also quite a few wooden planks stretching across the middle. You're kind of anxious when he tightrope-walks across one of the larger planks, but he seems absolutely fine with it so you decide to at least try. You're kind of drunk right now anyway.

Jesus, this is harder than you thought. Was this guy raised in the fucking circus or something?

"Yo, Kurloz, this ain't too cool." you say, a few metres out onto the thin board and wobbling more than you'd like to admit. He looks back at you from where he's perched directly in the middle and cocks his head to the side, giving you an unreadable expression.

Within seconds he's directly in front of you, standing perfectly straight and calm ten metres or so in the air. He offers you a smirk and a hand. That smug fuck.

However you take it without a second thought, uncomfortable with being up so high and needing a little support. His hands are bigger than yours, large and bony and incredibly comforting. The two of you take pigeon steps until you're in the middle where there's just enough room to stand without your head touching the crusty underside of the pier. He even helps you sit down. You can't help the irritated flush on your face. You hate needing help with anything. You have too much pride.

"Any particular reason I just risked my life to sit up here?" You ask, a little annoyed. He shrugs and pulls out his notebook again.

_'Looked like more fun than sitting down there'_ he writes. As soon as you read this he takes it back and scrawls something else, a contemplative look on his face _'I like being up high. I used to do trapeze and tightrope in my dad's circus.'__  
><em>  
>Holy shit he was raised in the circus "You're a circus freak?" you ask incredulously. He narrows his eyes and you backtrack "No, no, not in a bad way. I mean, how many people can say they perform in the circus? Especially their dad's circus. What's that all about? Family carnival, huh?"<p>

He chuckles silently an writes another message '_Yeah, we're all carnival trash. My brother's a professional clown.'__  
><em>  
>You briefly imagine Kurloz in clown makeup and laugh a little. Man, this guy was super weird. You're kind of interested in this crazy circus junk, though.<p>

You don't get time to reply because suddenly you hear voices. Voices you know.

One of your hands flies up to Kurloz's face and you tell him to shush, but then you realise just how stupid that was. You glance over and he gives you the most dramatic eye roll you've ever seen.

Down on the beach and walking towards the pier are Meenah and Rufioh. The two of them have been best friends for as long as you can remember, mostly because Meenah is about the only person you know who has no interest in sleeping with Rufioh, and that's only because she's the only straight out lesbian in your friend group. Rufioh was hot.

They sat down in the sand and Meenah pulled out a bottle of whiskey. You deliberate for a moment whether whiskey is technically cooler than vodka, and decide that yes, they have outdone your cool facade by at least 10%. But then again who cares. Well, you do, actually, but that's not the point.

The point is that Rufioh is laying down some serious emotional shit, and you ad Kurloz are eavesdropping like the creepy fucks you are.

"I just don't love him anymore, you know? He's so clingy I just can't stand it." he complains. No doubt he's bitching about Horuss. Damn horse boy's lucky, though. You don't like to think about what you'd do for the chance to sleep with Rufioh.

"True. Listen, party boy, it's high time you told that sweaty asshole to fuck off. Ain't no other way to put it." Meenah replies, condescending as always. She's right though, you think. Horuss is weird as fuck.

"You know I can't do that. Horuss doesn't listen." he looks sad and withdrawn and you instantly feel a little bad about it.

Meenah snorts "How did you break up with Damara again? You fucked the horse freak. Just go get your jiggy on with some other loser."

Rufioh draws lines in the sand with a lazy hand "Yeah, but whose stupid enough to cheat with me? Horuss would break every bone in their body."

"You know who I'm thinking of." Meenah giggles. You've never heard her giggle. Ever. You assume that this is because she's always annoyed and uncomfortable with you around but either way it doesn't suit her punk exterior. Still cute, though. You've always sort of had a huge crush on her.

Rufioh looks confused for a second and then slaps a hand to his face, making an almost inhuman noise of humiliation "Meenah, no. No, don't even joke about that."

Meenah hops up off the ground and falls into a typically masculine pose, overdoing it and thrusting out her hips and looking smug "Ay, yo, chief, vwanna hop up on this?"

"Fuck off oh my god." Rufioh groaned.

Oh. That's an impression of you. They're making fun of you. Nice. Okay. You haven't even done that stupid VW thing when you talk since high school, but you guess it's the kind of thing people hold onto. How does Meenah have more friends than you? She's so rude.

Kurloz just kind of glances at you, mildly interested. You think he knows that it's supposed to be you, because you know you've got the strangest look on your face, but you're happy he doesn't say anything. You know he couldn't anyway, but you're pretty sure he would have the decency to shut up about it if he could.

No, wait, you were wrong. He scribbles a quick _'You wanna hop up on this?'_ on his notepad and does that stupid laugh thing again. What an asshole.

You rip the notebook from his hands and write back _'You're so funny. Fuck off._'

He seems to have realised that you're genuinely pissed off about this and awkwardly scratches his chin, pointedly ignoring your expression of distaste. Meenah and Rufioh leave after about twenty minutes of similarly offensive banter, and you're surprised that they didn't spot you at any point during their stay.

"They don't like me too much." you tell him after more weird silence. The way you speak is low and sad, and you can feel a little bit of your original British accent sneaking through. It's a brief moment in which you honestly hate everything about who you are. Kurloz simply swings your bag from his back and hands you the vodka bottle from inside.

You don't even think about it this time when you take a swig, and let your face contort into a look of disgust. He doesn't laugh this time, choosing to write you another message of _'Would you still sleep with him though?'_

You generally appreciate the fact that he doesn't question you on your sexuality, since you have no clue what that is yourself. Your taste could be described as 'desperate' "The sad part is, I still totally would. Rufioh's hot."

He shakes his head and writes down _'Kind of an asshole_.' to witch you totally agree, but when it comes down to getting laid you're not too fussy about personality.

The two of you continue this exchange up in the rafters for a while, Kurloz generally questioning you on your social life and you're pretty sure that he's figured out just how lame you are. It's not like you hide it very well, or at all from him. It's surprisingly comfortable sitting up here with him, complaining about your shitty people issues.

You ask him more about his dad's circus, and learn that it's not as cool as you had originally thought. The whole thing shut down a couple of years ago due to health and safety violations, and that was when they stopped travelling to live in some small town in Ohio. You still think his mad tightrope skills are the bomb, though.

At some point it gets dark and kind of cold, and you descend from the pier (with a lot of help from Kurloz. Getting down from all the way up there was tricky as hell) and quietly wander through the harbour. You point out a few of the coffee shops and clothing stores you like as you walk, and he just nods along and listens to your little tour around the area.

You're a little concerned with just how much you like being around Kurloz. You didn't think that 'mute circus freak' would have been your type of friend, but there it was. Maybe you should put the friend-only label on people more often if it means they bother to withstand your horrible personality for that long.

It approaches nine in the evening and he bids you goodnight with a little wave, and you watch him leave. You surprise yourself with how much you don't want him to go, but it's cold and dark and you're pretty hungry so you hightail it out of there, getting home just in time for dinner.

**So that's their first totally-not-a-date. Lmao. Quick question, should I do the inevitable Cronus-Mituna conflict next chapter, or do you want more lame nerds doing weird junk? Tell me in review plz :v**

**Thanks for reading ! – Jak x**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey kids, get ready for some weird Cronus backstory. Yep, that's right, we're dragging Mituna into the mix and making everything a little more tragic than I initially planned. Enjoy! x**

Your name is Kurloz Makara and you're so comfortable right now it's unbelievable.

It's been three weeks since you met Cronus, and you've barely spent any time apart since. Mituna goes to college in the day, but luckily Cronus has just about as much of a life as you do (meaning none at all) and so you spend most of your free time doing literally nothing and messing around with him. That's a hell of a lot of time.

That day you sat on the pier together still warms your usually cold and awkward heart. You were so surprised when he opened up to you like that within the first couple hours of really hanging around each other, and you're pretty sure he used some kind of magic or something because now he has you trapped.

Trapped in a good way, of course. There's no way anybody could ever catch you in a situation you didn't condone. You basically just don't want to leave his side anymore, as weird as that is, because when you do you feel like he's going to be alone and miserable again. It kind of reminds you of when you first met Mituna, and he needed you around to function in a healthy way.

Mituna doesn't really need you anymore, though. He'd been fully capable of living alone before you showed up again, and whatever problems he still had he had Latula to help him. You'd felt useless for a long time, but now with Cronus around you feel a lot less so. A lot less alone.

The thought is weird in your mind considering the position you're in. You're so comfortable like this. This was the first time either of you had bothered going to each other's houses since Cronus didn't like other people being in his dad's house and technically you didn't even own the home in which you lived. Right now the two of you were stretched out on the couch. Your legs were all crossed together in a tangle of limbs after much fighting about whose legs got to go on top of who's, so you'd decided on just sitting like invalids with your feet in each other's laps.

You keep sneaking looks at Cronus, who is trying to watch television but is squinting a lot and you wonder whether he needs glasses or something. He's so cute when he doesn't know he's making faces.

That thought is weird, too. You can feel the tiniest hint of a blush at the idea of Cronus being cute, and you're happy about your dark skin because now he's looking at you too.

"Yo, Kurloz, you skateboard?" he asks, pointing at the yellow and white skateboard in the corner.

It crosses your mind that you've never introduced Cronus to Mituna and how much you think they'd get on with each other. However when you think about them being friends you instantly get jealous. Huh. You shake your head and sign **::My roommate::**

You've been trying to teach him sign language for the three short weeks you've been friends. He's progressed quickly in these lessons, a lot faster than you thought he would. Cronus is kind of dumb. You think that he practices at home or something.

He squints at your hands even though you're doing it slowly "I'm gonna guess that means no. You got a roommate or something?"

Not even close, but at least he got there in the end. You sign even slower than before **::Yeah, I live with my best friend::****  
><strong>  
>It takes him a minute but this time he gets it "Your best friend?"<p>

You nod, and his face becomes very passive. It crosses your mind that he doesn't seem to have any friends other than you. Why does that make you feel so bad? Maybe you should just kiss him already and stop feeling guilty about everything.

Please stop thinking things like that. It's only making the friendship awkward, on your part anyway. You're 95% sure he can't read minds so there's no way he could know just how creepy you've been in your head recently.

The main question you ask yourself in this moment is: Do I want to kiss him? You're not actually into guys. At all. But recently you've been considering Cronus more of a 'person' rather than a 'guy.' It's still a strange thought, though, and as much as you wouldn't mind kissing him the idea of going any further and having to deal with what's under the clothes makes you nervous.

Nervous? Definitely. But uncomfortable? Put off? Disgusted? Not really, you guess. You're not sure when exactly you started thinking about getting Cronus naked, but now you're just trying to figure out whether you would actually find him attractive or not.

"What's he like?" Cronus asks you, and your thoughts fly right out the window, suddenly embarrassed by what you were considering. What were you talking about again?

Oh yeah, Mituna. Luckily your best friend is a great way to kill any sex-related thoughts. You decide to write it down this time, since Cronus can only understand very little of what you say with your hands. _'He's a funny guy, kind of weird though. Mituna. Latula's boyfriend from the party.'_

He reads this and his face darkens "Mituna Captor? You live with _Mituna Captor_?"

Well that doesn't sound good. You frown and write him _'You know Mituna?'_

"Spastic shit-whore only ruined my life." he growled. You shoot him the nastiest glare you possibly could and his eyes widen "Look, okay, he's your friend or whatever, but I can't be here when he gets back. Fucker's gonna go apeshit."

You're kind of confused about this and are about to ask him what the fuck he was talking about when the sound of keys turning in the lock resonated throughout the apartment.

Cronus immediately jumps off the couch and huddles himself under the table, quite well hidden for the efforts of only a second of panic "Honey I'm home!" Mituna calls out, laughing hysterically at his own joke. Usually anything that made Mituna laugh like that, you'd laugh at it too, but right now you're heavily concerned about keeping Cronus' presence a secret. You're not sure why. It couldn't be _that _bad.

You sit nervously on the couch and Mituna plops down next to you "Kurloth, why doeth it thmell tho bad in here? Thmellth like wet dog and body thpray."

This is a surprisingly accurate description of Cronus' smell and you can't help it. You start laughing. Mituna's getting suspicious now and you're pretty sure you should just give up the gig. It couldn't be that bad, right?

You kick the table and Cronus makes this little squeaking noise. This just makes everything so much funnier in your mind, and you don't stop laughing as the Aquarius rolls out from under the table, bringing himself up to a weird crouch that looked a little like a fighting stance.

And then he and Mituna just stare at each other. Eventually you atop laughing and they're still just standing there, and maybe Mituna's brain just broke or something because this is suddenly very horrible. This is so unbearably awkward that you think you may just die.

"What the fuck are you doing in my houthe, dickhole?" Mituna snaps, breaking the tense silence.

"Hangin' out with Kurloz. What does it look like?" he replied, calmer than expected.

Mituna's body wracked with a brief angry spazm and he turned to Kurloz "Why the fuck are you with him? Why ith he? Why… _F-fuck…"_ he gripped at his messy hair and shook his head back and forth.

"What the shit? Stop doin' that. It's fuckin' retarded." Cronus scalded, looking pissed off and freaked out.

Your head snaps to him at this, the word 'retard' echoing through your mind. He doesn't even realise how much that stings you. Ableist scumbag. You instantly go to calm Mituna down, taking his hands slowly away from his hair and waiting for him to regroup.

"I'm not- I'm not _retarded,_ athhole." He snarls, picking up the closest projectile to him- which just so happens to be one of your juggling pins.

He throws it towards Cronus with alarming force, and it hits him squarely on the jaw "Ow, fuck-"

"Get out of my houthe!" he screams, darting round the couch in some sort of attempt to chase Cronus away. Cronus takes the initiative to hop over the table, then the couch, and stands in the doorway for a second before flipping the pair of you off and disappearing from sight.

It's quiet for a second **::Mituna, what the fuck?::** you sign, horrified by your friends actions.

He turns to you, upset and angry "Why are you hanging out with that dick? He'th, like, the _bad guy_. Don't _do _that."

**::I like Cronus::** you tell him, kind of perturbed by the events of today. You knew the guy didn't have a lot of friends, but you didn't realise he had any real enemies. It had to be Mituna, didn't it?

"Well you can- you can… what?" he pauses, confused again. You wait patiently for him to think over his words "Don't be friendth with him, Kurloth. He'th _mean_. He can't come back in here."

You sigh through your nose. This is stupid- why are they even like this? **::I'm going to go say bye now. Is that okay?::**

"Yeah, whatever. Tell him I thaid fuck off." Mituna runs off into his bedroom and returns with a can of deodorant, proceeding to spray it over the couch and the majority of your shared living space. Cronus doesn't smell _that_ bad.

You silently grab Cronus' jacket and dart out the door, quickly descending the multiple flights of stairs in the hope of maybe catching him while leaving. You find yourself lucky, because he's sitting on a bench just outside your apartment building, cigarette in mouth and looking pissed off.

He looks up at you and you wordlessly hand him his leather jacket "Thanks. Was kinda hoping you'd remember that." You sit next to him and write him out a short message of _'You going to explain why Mituna threw a juggling pin at your face?'_

Cronus rubs the rapidly forming bruise on his jaw and frowns "'Cause he hates my guts, that's why. I don't even hate him that much- I mean, we used to be friends." He takes a long drag from his cigarette. This information surprises you "Until I took the blame for his usual stupid shit one time and it got me expelled from the only high school anywhere near this shithole."

You don't like this at all, but he continues anyway "Fuckin' Captor goes off on one, right? Huge episode where he sets fire to a classroom, and he starts crying and shit, saying he 'can't go to jail'. Idiot. So I take the blame, not like I ain't been in a prison cell before anyway-" you blink at this, sceptical "Don't look at me like that. So they call my dad in and I get expelled, right? Like, I never graduated, I can't go to college, and when I come back from bein' grounded for fuck knows how long, everyone thinks I actually did it and I'm a huge mental case or some shit. Nobody talked to me for like, a year, and Captor never said anything to help me out. Bastard abandoned me just like everybody else."

He looks ready to hit something by the end of his little story. Personally, you can't believe something like that actually happened in this boring little beach town, but there was the whole twisted story "So, obviously, I'm gonna have a grudge against Captor, okay? Vwe got issues. Deal vwith it."

You pretend not to notice the verbal slip up with his W's there. You're a little torn about taking sides since you received this information. It's not like you could blame Mituna for anything, really, he probably just forgot or was pressured into avoiding Cronus or something. It's always hard to tell with the Gemini since his mental capacity changes so often.

'_He doesn't want you back in the house._' You admit, your handwriting neater and more hesitant than usual _'I don't know if he's cool with us being friends.'_

Cronus spends a few seconds staring at the paper. You think he might have something to say, but instead of reasoning through anything he proceeds to throw the notebook into the road, yelling "Oh, vwhat, so you're just gonna fuck me ovwer too 'cause Captor might _'not be cool'_ vwith it?"

He's not even trying to hide is speech issues anymore, and you're lost here without your notebook. You're pretty sure he either wants to hit you, or to run away. You can't tell which **::No, I want to fix this::**

The Aquarius laughs at you "I don't evwen havwe to listen to you. You knowv vwhy? Because I can't understand a vword you're saying, you creepy mute _fuck_."

Oh shit. That hit you harder than you'd like to admit. Fuck fixing this, and fuck Cronus. You don't care if he's tragic or not, that was straight up fucking rude. So in retaliation, you snatch the jacket back from him and storm back up to the apartment. You can hear him yelling various mute-themed insults after you, but he can't get into the building without a key so from the other side of the small glass door, you smile in the most condescending way you can and flip him off.

**::He comes anywhere near you, I'll choke him::** you sign at Mituna when you return. He laughs and offers you some of the pizza he'd been making while you were busy arguing with that asshole downstairs. You decline and shut yourself in your room, deciding to spend the rest of the evening playing your ICP records and debating whether you were too harsh on him, considering that he clearly has some people problems.

Nah, Cronus was way out of line. You don't tolerate any insults that gear towards you or Mituna's disabilities. You also question why exactly you stole his jacket, but that's at the bottom of your priorities right now. More importantly, you're considering just how believable that horrible story was- and how you still feel way worse for Cronus than you really should. Fuck this.

**So yeah, first argument. Nice. Let's not pretend that Cronus isn't a bad person, even if he does have a tragic life. He would totally use Kurloz's muteness as a way to get to him (asshole alert). So, basically, I'm thinking Cronus tries to turn his life around a little next chapter and this time I'm asking whether him and Kurloz should make up or really get their hate on. Tell me in review plz !**

**Thanks for reading – Jak x**


	6. Chapter 6

**And heres the latest chapter ! Updated tonight instead of tomorrow because Erin's a nerd. Sorry its short :p x**

Your name is Cronus Ampora and this whole 'job' thing isn't as horrible as you thought it would be.

So far your new start as a barista has consisted of four spilled coffees, two wrong orders and minimal tips, but hey, at least you're getting paid. Not sitting on your ass all day is kind of nice too, in a very classless demeaning sort of way. Maybe your dad was right- you really were a useless sack of shit.

Not anymore, though. You're keeping it fresh and going all out on the customer service vibe, serving up smiles with every order. God, you're just amazing at this, aren't you?

You hand that cute younger girl her frappa-whatever-the-fuck and she thanks you with a wink. Well, that's certainly different. Maybe you should get her number. For some reason the idea of doing so reminds you of Kurloz. You wince.

It's been a week since you and Kurloz stopped talking to each other, and you've already drastically turned your life around. You're pretty sure your now official status of 'completely friendless' has inspired you to at least try and make something of yourself, and this job is actually making you feel kind of good.

To be honest you can't believe you spent hours alone in your room practicing sign language for a guy who- hey, it's not like you even had a chance with him in the first place. As far as you know he's completely heterosexual and friendship was all that was on offer. But then again, fuck friendship. Mituna's interference hadn't fucked up your life that much this time, you suppose. You're still pissed off though- fucker stole your jacket. Are you even going to get that back?

You hate that you miss Kurloz. It was nice, for however brief a time, to have someone who actually wanted to be around you. This is not the time to be thinking about that, though, because you're very busy making obscenely complicated coffee for people with too much money to waste. The door chimes, meaning yet another customer wanting you to make something stupid. Okay.

Oh shit, it's Meenah, and she's staring at you. Like usual she's wearing that bright pink getup, all baggy pants and chains and stuff. You're still kind of butthurt about her making fun of you... what, a month ago? Wow, you really know how to hold a grudge.

"Yo, how's my favourite tool doin'?" she leans on the counter, smirking at you with your apron and slightly messier than usual hair. You don't really care about your hair that much if you're only going to work.

"Pretty good. Workin'. The usual." you reply, aloof and not in the mood to be taking shit today "You gonna order or what?"

She snorts, grinning behind fuchsia painted lips "Wow, touchy are we? Nah, I'm just here to invite a loser to my party tomorrow."

"Wait, really?" you stop wiping the counter for a second, forgetting all about that coffee you spilled over twenty minutes ago. God you're so bad at this.

"Ain't a party without guests. You ain't got anything to do tomorrow night, right? Nah, didn't think so." she looks behind her shoulder to glance out into the busy street. You wonder whether this is some kind of weird joke at your expense "Anyway, I'd _reely_ like you to be there. My place at eight?"

You're surprised by the fact that it's only been a month or so since the last party you'd been invited to. You don't get invited to much, and now you're suddenly going to Meenah's party. That's like, VIP or something. You don't think many people get invited to those things.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. You're holding up the line." you tell her. A brief frown crosses her face, but it's replaced almost instantly with a menacing grin.

"Stay cute,_ Ampora_." she instructs you before waltzing out of the shop. You're a little in shock. Meenah was weird as hell. It kind of feels like this is some sort of trap, but you doubt that this ominous feeling is going to stop you from showing up at her house tomorrow.

It's another two hours of this work bullshit until you get your break. You were so enthusiastic about this job a little while ago. What changed? Oh yeah, that's right, you realised how shitty and awful customer service is. Wow, you really hate this place.

As soon as your manager lets you out for a break, you throw your apron behind the counter and dart out into the street for a cigarette. This addiction is getting ridiculous- four hours without one and you already feel like you're dying. It occurs to you that maybe you should quit smoking these misery sticks, but that's a little too much effort for you. You'd rather just waste more money on them and suffer in silence.

Speaking of silence, a hand darts out of nowhere and steals one of your cigarettes. You haven't even lit yours yet, just standing there like an imbecile and confused as to what kind of shit-licking asshat this stranger was who thought they could just take your-

Oh. Fuck. Kurloz stands beside you, a little too close for your liking right now. You instantly step away, frowning, and slap the cigarette out of his hand. The _nerve_ of this guy.

"Why the fuck-" he presses a finger to his own lips, indicating that you shut up for once in your life. You're still mad, but he looks kind of desperate for you to be quiet and you're a little interested in whatever he has to say.

He scratches the back of his neck, looking nervous, and then proceeds to pick the cigarette back up from the dirty sidewalk, placing it gently back into your still open pack. Kind of disgusting, but you don't care all that much. The look on your face is probably making this more awkward than it has to be, because you know for a fact that you're giving him the nastiest glare possible. You suppose can be threatening when you want to be.

"What do you want?" you ask him, keeping to the point. He pulls a new notebook out from his back pocket and rips off the top page, not looking you in the eye as he hands it to you.

Looks like he had this planned, because in purple ink he'd already written _'I'm sorry._' in neat, loopy writing that he probably spent a little while getting perfect.

"Why?" you ask. People never apologise to you, so right now you're more than a little confused. He blinks, waves his hands a little in frustration, and then shushes you again. Rude, but you're too confused to do much about it.

_'I am an asshole_.' the next note says. You can't help but smirk as you read this. The third note says _'You are also an asshole.'_

Less cool, but completely true. The fourth note is longer: _'However I literally do not care about any of that. Mituna isn't a reason for us not to be friends, and I miss us hanging out. Maybe just not in my apartment next time, unless you want more juggling pins thrown at you.'_

You're convinced. This guy is going to be the death of you. This is just so_ cute_, it's like something out of a bad romcom. You're about to give in entirely and hug him or something but he hands you the last note _'Also I still have your jacket and if you want that back then you have to be nice to me.'_

And then you can't stop laughing. Kurloz is the biggest nerd you have ever had the pleasure to waste time with. You tell him this and he just rolls his eyes. What a dork. He seems to think about something for a moment, and then awkwardly stretches his arms out for a hug.

This is the perfect opportunity to attack him for his weird apology, and you go full on hug-mode, crushing yourself into his chest with malicious intent and hooking your chin over one shoulder. This is more physical contact in one go than you've received in possibly the last three years. He huffs out a startled breath before squeezing his arms around your back, trying just as hard to suffocate you as you are him. It turns into a sort of wrestling match between the two of you on the busy sidewalk, and you bump into a few strangers during your battle for dominance, but you're stronger and end up pushing him against the wall of the coffee shop.

He blinks down at you from where you've got him trapped. There is a lot of physical contact going on here and you're pretty sure this just got a lot less heterosexual. Poor Kurloz, you're probably making him uncomfortable.

You back off a little and punch him in the arm. That's a totally hetero thing to do, right? Yeah, close enough "Okay, loser, you got me. We can still be pals. I'm on my break right now if you wanna go sit by the harbour or something?"

He writes you a quick message of '_Your hair is messy.'_

You stop for a second. That is absolutely not the correct response to your question "Kurloz, your hair is always messy. All the time. It doesn't even look like you wash it."

'_I don't need to.'_ He informs you. That's disgusting. But then again you shower, like, once a week so you can't say anything about other people being dirty. Kurloz reaches over and ruffles your hair into even more of a mess than it already is.

"Oh, fuck, get off." You growl, batting his hands away. He just laughs silently and continues trying to mess it up as you fix it "You never answered my question. Do you wanna go to the harbour or not?"

He nods "Good, cause I'm hungry. There's this one place, does cheap fries that are actually _good,_ and I am all about that."

The two of you wander off down the street in search of cheap food, the last week of arguments and resentment mostly forgotten. You're kind of surprised how easily that was resolved, but who are you to question it?

**There are no heteros here. None. So yh that's that and im sorry about how lame the make-up was, but I got 0 votes for our nerds getting their blackrom on and 3 asking for a reunion, so you guys cant say anything.**

**So, Meenah's party next chapter. Guess whats gonna happen there lamo – Jak x**


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter took so long to write like you don't even know T.T I struggled. I really did and it's still not as good as I wanted it to be. But anyway, here it is ! Enjoy ! idk I get a feeling ur gonna like this one lmao**

Your name is Kurloz Makara, but you probably guessed that already. There's kind of a pattern to these things.

Why are you going to Meenah's party tonight? Well, that would be because Cronus practically begged you to. For some reason he's convinced that they're playing some kind of sick joke on him, and if they are then he needs backup. This is what you've been reduced to: Backup.

This contrasts drastically with the position you were in only yesterday- that would be pressed up against a wall by a loser you admittedly have a huge crush on. It's not even just random uncomfortable thoughts anymore. You have a full-fledged schoolgirl crush on Cronus Ampora and you can't decide whether this is a bad thing or not. The worst part is, you think he's actually trying not to make your relationship go anywhere. Like, literally forcing this to stay heterosexual. Who would even want that? Ever?

You think it started about an hour after he left your apartment. Fucker put you in the worst mood possible, and for some reason that managed to pull at your heart strings and now you're even more trapped than before. What is this? You never let yourself get trapped like this. All situations must be of your making.

Yet here you are, trying to find clothes that will impress Cronus. In your opinion it's kind of sad just how hard you're trying to look good in front on him- it's not like he's unavailable or anything. He's actually probably the easiest motherfucker in a three mile radius, but that doesn't mean you can't try a little, right? Right. Good. Okay.

Once again your skeleton suit is left neglected at the bottom of the clothing mountain you have created in search of a good outfit. You don't even have to leave the house for another three hours, but your nerves are getting the better of you. Stupid nerves. This is ridiculous.

You end up wearing those obscenely tight black jeans that seem to make people look at you for longer than is comfortable, and a skeleton print top. Skeleton stuff is the best. Finish this off with those nice purple boots you sometimes forget you own and yeah, you look good. And Cronus likes your eyeliner, right? Yeah, that's going on too. You look around for a jacket, and your eyes slowly settle on...

Could you? No, that's too much. That's out of the question. You're going to do it anyway.

You slip on Cronus' jacket, the rough leather not really matching the rest of your clothes. It's a little too big on your skinny frame and the sleeves don't quite reach your hands, but it's just so obviously his and it smells like him and oh god why are you getting off on this.

Mituna's out tonight so for the next couple hours all you have to do is watch TV and probably smell the jacket some more. What a strange, sad life you lead.

-

Two loud honks sound from down in the street. A second later your phone vibrates.

_Cronus: hey fucknut I'm outside_

It takes no time at all for you to descend the stairs of the building, eager to see Cronus and for some reason you're excited about his car. You don't really like cars all that much, but he talks about it a whole lot so you assume it's something nice.

It's pretty nice, honestly. It looks like one of those home-workshop cars you see in old greaser movies, all flame decals up the sides and bright purple hubcaps. A bit try-hard and attention grabbing in such a small, level-headed town, but you think that you like it. Or maybe you just like Cronus. In the end, what's the difference?

You carefully shut the door on the passengers side, wary of doing any damage to such an obviously prised possession "So, chief, what do you think of the-"

He stops mid-sentence, eyes raking over your form. The way he looks at you in this over the top car makes you feel kind of dirty. You take the opportunity to look at him as well; all slicked back hair and baggy jeans and Jesus Christ why are all of his shirts so tight.

"Are you wearing my jacket?" he asks, jaw not really recovering from where it was dropped when he first looked at you.

You play with the zipper for a while, not looking him in the eye when you nod. God this is embarrassing. He must think you're some kind of idiot. You knew you should have just gone with one of your own jackets- you swear you have, like, at least five. There's a definite blush on your face, and you momentarily thank your dark skin for hiding it.

He turns back to face the front and starts the engine, staring determinedly forwards as he pulls out into the street "It's hot." he states. Your head snaps round to question him, one eyebrow raised. He still doesn't look at you "It's, uh, yeah, that's kinda hot."

Well, if you weren't blushing before you definitely are now. In a quick retaliation you smack the back of his head. The car jolts slightly but he doesn't lay off his course, he just smacks you back, one hand flying out to the side and managing to hit you right in the forehead.

You rub at your face and he laughs. Then you laugh. And then hit him again. See? This is much less awkward than you had thought it would be. It was nice how easily the two of you could fall right back into this juvenile bullshit after all that business about Mituna.

Meenah's house was big. And that means, yeah, it was fucking huge. You didn't even think people lived in houses that big, like, it had always been some kind of weird conspiracy where houses like this are dotted around with nobody to live in them as a constant reminder to the working man that yeah, he could be doing better. One of your less sound theories, and easily disproven by thumping bassline eminating from the entire building, but you will stick to your guns damn it.

"Ampora, glad you could make it." Meenah grins from the other side of the huge oak door. She turns to you "And I don't know you. What up, stranger?"

Ah, yes, this is awkward. You shrug and wave her off in the most casual manner possible. You are eternally thankful that Cronus speaks for you "This is Kurloz. Friend of mine."

She invites the two if you inside, happily ignoring your presence and lack of talking in favour for the more socially capable partygoers. Cronus turns to you, gripping you by the arms "Kurloz, these fuckers are gonna stab me. Why do I feel like I'm gonna get stabbed?"

You happily sign back **::Because you're an asshole and have no friends:: **which he clearly doesn't understand, because he replies with a slightly confused "Okay, thanks."

Yeah, you really like Cronus. Maybe you should kiss him right now and get it over with. It's not like he's going to completely reject you.

But you don't do that. Instead, you follow him to one of the less populated areas of the party, closer to the drinks table where very few people are milling about. It's kind of early in the evening so nobody's drinking that much, but Cronus goes straight for the vodka.

"Kurloz, I'm stressed. This is a stressful situation. Meenah hates my guts." he tells you, having to get close to be heard above the thumping music. Poor guy looks genuinely worried. Maybe you shouldn't insult him in sign language so often. It can't be good karma.

You write him a short message of _'We can leave if you like._', to which he shakes his head, looking more stressed out than before if that was even possible.

"No, no, this is nice. It's a nice party." he looks around before giving you a sideways glance "At least I'm outside."

This kid is some kind of crazy masochist, you swear. Either way you hook an arm around his shoulders and gesture to the large selection of drinks on offer. He ends up making you a drink that tastes like cleaning chemicals, but you don't complain. Whatever. At least it's alcoholic.

As the night goes on the two of you are vastly ignored by the majority of the guests. Nobody really wants to hang around with you guys. Meenah comes over to say hi a couple of times, but overall it's kind of boring.

Until you hear it "Meenah, I don't know if I can do it. Horuss is right over there." Rufioh complains, closer to your side than Cronus'. You briefly remember the conversation you overheard at the pier and it fills you with a vague sense of dread.

"That's the point, ain't it? Just do it. He's only here because you asked, fucker's stinking up my party." she replies. You think you kind of hate Meenah. Cronus is way too distracted mixing more horrific drinks to listen to any of this, and you're thankful for that. He doesn't need any more blows to the ego.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay, I'm gonna do it." Is the last thing you hear from the conversation before Meenah is directly in front of you.

She slaps a hand to your arm, grip tighter than you were expecting "Hey, Kurloz, right? Come do shots with me."

And suddenly you're being dragged across the room towards a bottle of tequila with your name on it. Cronus only notices that you've left him once you're already gone, sending you a look full of slightly drunken betrayal. Oh god why is this happening.

Meenah pours you a shot but you shake your head "What, not gonna play with me? Loser."

You watch Rufioh approach Cronus with wary eyes and change your mind about the shots. You take the one offered and down it instantly, not noticing the taste as much as the burning sensation in your stomach. It's not even that much to do with the alcohol, either. Rufioh has Cronus pinned to the wall, hands on the others hips and is talking to him about something. The Taurus looks nervous as hell and keeps glancing over his shoulder, but Cronus is in too much shock that this is actually happening to really do much about it.

_Please don't kiss him. Please just don't. Not before I do._

But your silent pleas do nothing to stop this tragedy. Rufioh swoops right in there, firmly planting his lips on Cronus', who doesn't actually respond. He's just kind of staring at this totally hot guy, who is obviously all over him, and doesn't even move. You and Cronus make eye contact for a split second, and you must be burning holes through the air with your rage, because he stands there stiff as a board, and then lightly pushes the other boy away from him.

This is a miracle, in your opinion. What you had expected was a zero percent chance of Rufioh's rejection. What you expected even less was for Cronus to turn the way he did.

Man, he looked_ pissed_. You couldn't actually hear what he was saying over the loud music, but he gestured wildly with his hands, and as far as you could see, Rufioh was trying to calm him down again. Yeah, good luck there. The Taurus puts a hand on his shoulder, and Cronus smacks it right off, yelling something incomprehensible. This argument actually turns a few heads, including Meenah's, who had long forgotten that you two were supposed to be doing shots.

"What the fuck?" she wonders aloud, going over to break up the argument that she clearly didn't need at her party. You follow close behind, ready to either punch Rufioh in the throat or steal Cronus away to somewhere safe.

"_Self-entitled jackass_. Get over your victim complex and just break up with your shitty boyfriend in a way that _won't_ have Horuss cracking my skull." He snarls, getting more in Rufioh's face with every word. Wow, how often do you get to see Cronus this angry? Only that one other time, but back then it was being directed at _you, _and it was _horrible_. When it's at someone else, it's actually kind of hot.

Meenah pushes him back a little "Chill, Amproa."

"No, fuck you. There's no chill left. None at all." He says, striding gracelessly from the room, but not without turning back to add a quick "You assholes ain't worth it."

You don't give half a fuck about Meenah and Rufioh, and quickly follow him out. You think he forgets that you were there, because he goes straight on the warpath to get to his car. You stop him, grabbing one arm. He turns to yell at you, but realises exactly who you are and falters.

"That really wasn't cool, was it?" his voice is small now, his face fallen and shoulders hunched, and it breaks your heart a little.

'_It was pretty cool.'_ You write for him. He just gives you a sceptical look, so you continue _'You're 100% right, though. They aren't worth it.'_

He stares blankly at the paper, and then back up at you. And then at the paper again "Yeah, no, they really aren't." he smiles, a strange new energy about him "Fuck it, who cares. You wanna go get ice cream? I'm not even that drunk so I can drive us-"

He stops again and laughs "Wait, shit, it's like one in the fuckin' morning. Fuck." Oh my god you really want to kiss him right now. How cute can a person even be? This should be illegal.

Cronus goes to unlock his car anyway, ready to go home and hopefully give you a ride away from this strange rich people neighbourhood. As he goes to put the key in the door he mumbles a short "Yeah, they're not worth it."

A sudden boldness overtakes you. Maybe you shouldn't have drunk tonight, what with your strange feelings lately. You flip him around so that his back is to the car, and he lets out this little startled squeak. Fuck, maybe he's drunker than he's letting on.

**::Am I worth it?::** you sign, agitated. He blinks owlishly at you.

"Kurloz, I, uh, I kinda have no idea what that means." He admits, shrugging his shoulders. You pull out your notepad, determined to make something out of this encounter.

'_Am I worth it?'_ you etch in a thick, pointed scrawl.

Cronus hands you back the notebook, which you slip into your back pocket. He hasn't said anything yet, but instead decides to grip his hands around the leather at the front of your jacket- which is actually _his_ jacket- and you think you're having some kind of half-drunk anxious meltdown. Fuck, you fucked up. You fucked this up.

"I don't think I understand." He says very slowly, frowning down at his hands. Poor kid tries _so hard_ to maintain this dumb hetero friendship.

You lean down and gently press your lips to his, barely touching, but now your intentions are clear. It's nice either way, because he's warm as hell and so _soft_. You would never have used the word 'soft' to describe Cronus. _Annoying_ or _huge screaming pissbaby_, maybe, but not soft.

When you pull away he's blushing to new extremes and gripping the jacket even tighter "Wow, there's, uh, a lot of people kissing me tonight, isn't there?" he mutters, laughing to himself in a very airy, detached manner. You don't break eye contact for even a second.

He pulls you back down and crushes your mouths back together, and, oh wow, he's bad at kissing. Looks like that's something you get to teach him. He pulls away first this time, hands cupping either side of your face.

"Yeah. You're definitely vworth it."

**And I'm going to leave it right there. Right the fuck there. Yes. So, next chapter, do we want a really awful first official date or do we want nerds in Cronus' house where there are other Amporas. Less fun Amporas. Tell me in a review please ! ^^**

**Thanks for reading ! – Jak x**


	8. Chapter 8

**Welcome to the actual worst date ever, courtesy of me and my shitty writing. Imma just apologise now for how late this is lmao im sorry ive had so much shit to do recently. Anyways here's your nerd boys. Enjoy ! x**

Your name is Cronus Ampora and you are nervous.

Why are you nervous? There is literally no reason for you to feel this way, but here you are, in the shower, obsessively trying to scrub away your anxiety with that god damn scratchy steel wool brush they you don't understand why your dad keeps in here. That shit hurts, and the water is cold. You never have hot water here, that's a luxury your dad can't pay for.

Dualscar lost his job a few years back after his multimillion dollar fishing company got caught up in some huge scandal or something, so the upkeep for your large house and expensive lifestyle went right down the drain. These days your dad worked as a guard in the prison a few miles outside of town. It really didn't pay much, so keeping this house clean and functional wasn't an option what with the mortgage to pay off. You don't understand why your dad refuses to sell it.

Speaking of your dad, you were so fucking happy when you got that demeaning job in the coffee house, because for the first time in what feels like forever, _he wasn't mad at you_. In fact, he pushed about half your chores down to Eridan (your brother) so that you had more time to work. Being at home is a hell of a lot easier now with all that useless weight off of your back The only downside to work is that you haven't had a single day all week, and therefore you haven't seen Kurloz.

Oh wow. Kurloz. You can't actually believe, even for a second, that he actually kissed you last week. Kurloz is into you. It's literally amazing, and you don't know how to handle it.

This is why youre nervous. Neither of you have addressed the kiss so far, or even really discussed this prominent change in your relationship further than the fact that he now occasionally puts kisses at the end of his texts. And since this is the first day you've had off work, you're going to see him.

You're one hundred percent sure that this is a date. A real date. With a real person that you really like. And it's _Kurloz._

Drying off and dressing quickly in your usual loose jeans and a jumper printed with little anchors (it was getting cold out and you still haven't got your jacket back for some reason) you head out into the mid October air. You head over to the harbour where you're supposed to meet him and your phone buzzes.

_Kankri: Cronus, are you free today? It's come to my attention that I haven't even seen you in over a month, and I'd really like for us to catch up. I have some topics I've been meaning to discuss with you and-_

It went on like that for a while. Wow, today of all days and someone else wants to hang out with you. Did you miss Kankri? Kind of, you guess, but you're still bitter that he told Lutula your secret. Then again, if he hadn't of told her, she wouldn't have invited you to her party, and then you wouldn't have met Kurloz. Speaking of Kurloz, you spot him leaning on the wrong side of a bench a little while away with a cigarette in hand. You quickly text back Kankri.

_You: Sorry Kanny, I got a date today_

You're thrilled that you can finally use that as a legitimate excuse "Yo, chief, what up?" you ask him, nervous grin firmly in place. As excited as you are about this change, you're not exactly sure how you're supposed to greet him now.

But he's not awkward at all, pulling you into a strange one-armed embrace, kissing you lightly on the side of the head. This is nice. You could get used to this "So, uh, what are we doing today?" you question, appreciating that he hadn't yet removed his arm from around your shoulders. He has to though, to get to his notepad, and you're a little disappointed.

'_Something stupid, I'm sure_.' Is all he writes, and as you're reading it, he turns and runs away, leaving you with only the notebook and a state of utter confusion for company.

"Kurloz, this isn't how normal people do dates!" you yell after him, trying to be more annoyed than you actually are.

You follow him. He's kind of hard to keep up with and runs a lot faster than you do, so by the time he slows down and you actually manage to catch up to him, you're out of breath. He appears to have led you to that spot under the pier. And he's laughing at you. What an asshole.

Your fist collides with his arm and he stumbles a little before returning the favour. It turns into just the two of you repeatedly hitting each other with no goal outside of pissing the other off. At some point he grabs your arm and pulls you to him, and you think for a second that maybe he's decided to be less annoying for a change, but you're wrong.

Instead of this being a nice gesture, he instead goes completely limp except for where he's holding onto you, and you both fall to the ground, Kurloz ignoring your protests while he cuddles with you in the sand.

It's cute, you decide after a moment, that he brought you here to, you know, lie down or whatever the hell this was, but also weird and stupid "Hey, uh, is this what we're doing now? Like, usual stuff, but with more touching?"

He thinks for a second, and then nods, leaning over to kiss you. You reciprocate immediately, more than enthusiastic for such shenanigans. That's kind of how you waste a whole hour: making out on the beach. You don't know what you're doing half the time, being horrifically inexperienced with this kind of thing, but it's super nice anyway. Besides, he's good at it, so you don't need to be, right?

For a second you think he's trying to grope you, but find yourself disappointed when he only takes his notebook back from your pocket_ 'Do you want to vandalise something?'_

"Vandalise something? Did you get weirder or what?" you ask him. This clown is ridiculous.

He ignores you and gets up anyway '_I'm in a vandalism mood._' Is all the information he gives you, smiling strangely and pulling you up from the sand. It seems as if you don't get an opinion today, because as you walk along through the harbour, consistently questioning him on exactly what a 'vandalism mood' entails, you never get an answer. Most answers are just him stopping in the street to kiss you, to which every time he does so you try to make it last longer than it needs to be, but sometimes he pokes you in the ribs too. This guy is great.

For some ungodly reason he stops at the Walmart on the edge of town and drags you inside "Kurloz, please at least tell me why we're here."

'_I used to do this with my ex._' Is the answer you get before he takes a cart. Why did that sting? Maybe it's because Kurloz has had a successful relationship before while you haven't, or maybe it's because you feel like a replacement. Don't be silly, you're not a replacement. You're probably nothing like his ex, anyway.

The two of you wander off down the aisles, and you feel as if you're getting no closer to any answers. Literally nothing that has happened so far has made any sense. And then he stops in the vegetable section. He gives you a long sideways glance, and tips over a whole barrel of potatoes, looking unbelievably shocked that this possibly could have happened.

"Kurloz, what the fuck?" You start laughing, trying to ignore the disapproving stares of passers-by.

He puts a finger to your lips, promptly shutting you up, and points somewhere behind you. You turn to look, and feel something hard hit the back of your head. You don't even bother to question it this time, just rolling your eyes as you pick up a carrot, viciously throwing it right back at him. He ducks, smiling maniacally, hiding behind the cart.

With sudden inspiration and lack of caring for whatever these Walmart-shopping strangers think, you run over and empty the nearest bag of vegetables over his head. He cringes and bats you away, and you run, laughing into the next aisle.

And when he finds you again, you armed with a bottle of some kind of cleaning product ready to throw, he comes down the aisle riding on the back of the cart, looking like something close to royalty in this shitty store. What a huge, undeniable nerd.

So you throw your cleaning product and he ducks, and at some point in this ridiculous exchange you end up in an aisle populated by bottles. It doesn't take any persuasion for him to slip a bottle or two under his jacket (it's not your jacket, though. You wonder where that got to) and you run into the bathrooms.

"So, first date is shoplifting from Walmart, huh?" you laugh at him as he passes you a bottle. Luckily there's nobody in the men's bathroom to, you know, report your petty crimes or whatever.

'_More fun than it sounds, right?_' is what he writes for you. You briefly note that he answered a question with another question, which irks you slightly, but who cares.

That's how you waste another hour or so. Drinking technically-not-stolen alcohol in a Walmart bathroom, and you refuse to kiss him in here. You are not yet 100% trash and plan to keep at least a little of your dignity. Eventually you have to get out of there- you two already look incredibly suspicious- and decide to leave Walmart entirely.

Well, that was the plan at least, but you get side-tracked by a nasty old woman who reports your theft and a security guard who chases you all the way down the street and oh wow you hate running. Running is for losers, anyway. Or maybe just people with slightly more motivation towards their physical health than you- namely Kurloz, who never appears to be out of breath.

"How do you run like that?" you ask him between gasps for air. This is ridiculous.

He does that silent laugh thing while you try to catch your breath and writes you a new note _'I don't talk. It saves air for other things.'_

Well, you can't deny the slight logic that might be in there somewhere, and you're not going to question it because he's kissing you again. Oh. Okay, that's nice. You're still kind of out of breath and this isn't helping that at all, but it's still kind of nice. You really need air, though, and push him off which he doesn't seem to mind at all. That's not the positive reaction you wanted.

"If we're gonna make out, which we totally should be doing by the way, let's do it somewhere that's not here." You tell him, feeling just a little pleased with yourself when he agrees. It seems like before Kurloz you'd be desperate for about any kind of affection, but now you mostly just feel safe. Like, you can tell him not to kiss you and everything's still good. Wow, this is good. You really want to kiss him now.

Life is good as you unlock the door to your house, which Kurloz can't believe you live in. You can't believe you still live in this dump of a mansion either. It's seriously disgusting in here, but at least your room's kind of clean, and that's the only place you really want to keep Kurloz in anyway.

You only realise that there's mess in your room the moment you open the door, and quickly kick the pile of dirty clothes to the side. Kurloz politely ignores this and goes straight over to your guitar, which is leant up on the rack by the wall. He points at it enthusiastically, hopping on the spot a little.

You smirk "Yes, that is my guitar." And then you just watch him as he looks around, seemingly fascinated by the sheer amount of junk you've acquired over the years. Why is it that when you actually want him to kiss you he's distracted? This place isn't even that interesting. You should be the thing that is interesting.

It's a respectable decision, in your honest opinion, to now make yourself interesting. This is a fantastic point in time to take off your shirt, throwing it casually into the pile of clothes in the corner. Yeah, you at least got him to look at you, but now he's laughing and once again this is not the reaction you wanted '_Am I not paying you enough attention?' _he writes.

"Obviously not." You frown, crossing your arms. He instantly goes to uncross them, but you're a little bitter about his laughing so you try your absolute hardest to keep them crossed. It turns into yet another wrestling match (these are apparently becoming more and more frequent between the two of you) and you let him win. You totally could have won that, though. You kind of just want to get to the kissing already.

He closes in on you, lips barely touching yours when the door opens.

"Cro, I need you to-" Eridan, your brother, walks in, eyes glued to the screen of his phone for a split second before he spots the two of you. His face falls in shock "What the actual fuck?"

You groan, pulling away from Kurloz, who has recently adopted the strangest smile and doesn't appear to care that your kiss was interrupted "Danny, what I gotta tell you about privacy?"

Eridan smirks something evil "Yeah, but usually it's just you and your right hand. Didn't know I had to worry about-"

"Get _out _holy shit." You literally push him out of the room and lock the door behind him. Fuck. That was embarrassing on both ends and it's one of those times where you're kind of happy Kurloz can't talk.

Speaking of Kurloz, he hasn't stopped smiling "What?" you ask, confused as to what exactly could be this amusing. He shakes his head "_What?"_ you repeat, but this time with a little more force behind it. You're legit pretty pissed off now that the mood has been slaughtered by your shitty little brother.

'_Why is your brother English?'_ is what he writes down. You smack a hand to your forehead.

"We're English. My family is from England." You tell him, speaking as if he were a small child. You're not sure why- it's not like there's any way he could have known. Kurloz narrows his eyes, leaning backwards a little as he slowly points a finger at you "No, I'm not kidding, and yeah, I put on an accent."

All he writes this time is a short _'Why?'_ to which you can't even be bothered to start explaining now. Instead, you push him on the bed. You think he generally assumes that this might get sexual, but no, you're in a bad mood now and you're going to watch shitty cartoons on your beat up television and force him to cuddle with you.

It's nice that he doesn't complain. Much. For a mute guy he actually complains a whole lot but every time he tries to get up and basically do anything other than watch TV and pay attention to you it's only a matter of some kissing and a warning or two and he's comfy again. He's actually really comfortable to lie on.

Okay, maybe you're not that mad anymore.

**Yeah, shitty date 100%. Im sorry. More actual things will happen soon I promise but for now it's just dumb nerds doing absolutely nothing. Yay. Next chapter I think I'm going to do a bunch of oneshots that is basically the relationship over the next couple of months? Does this sound like something you would like to read because that's whats appealing to me atm.**

**Thanks for reading ! – Jak x**


	9. Chapter 9

**SO. Basically, I'm really sorry. My laptop broke down and I had to get it repaired, so this is like a whole week and a half late. I swear I'm not leaving this unfinished, I'm just bad at time management. Okay, finally, a chapter. Warning: very obviously implied sex. Nice. Enjoy !**

**October 18th - Telling Mituna**

"You're what? No, no, Kurloth, no..." Mituna cries, rolling off the couch and onto the floor in a state of pure 'what the fuck?'

You only nod in reply, amused by his antics but not so hot on his reaction. Well, you weren't expecting anything positive anyway so you're not exactly upset.

"Did he trick you into thith? Did he thuck your dick? Ith he paying you?" he asks in quick succession, rising from the floor easily enough to get in your face.

You answer with **::Yes, no, and kind of::** which Mituna doesn't seem happy about either. Yeah, Cronus totally tricked you into dating him. You would have flat out refused only a few weeks ago, but hey, as it turns out you're a sucker for misery cases and emotional manipulation.

No, Cronus has not actually been anywhere near your dick yet and you are frustrated beyond belief. It's not like you haven't been thinking about it. A lot. You just haven't found an excuse to get his pants off yet, which, actually, shouldn't need an excuse. That's the next thing on the to do list.

And he is totally bribing you. Not paying you straight out, but since you've been dating for about a week now he's bought all the food and vodka every time you meet up. All you've given him is his jacket back and you're starting to feel bad about it. Maybe if you buy him dinner you can get his pants off. Nice.

But Mituna only focuses on one part of this "If he'th not thucking your dick then what'th the point? What do you guyth do? Talk?" he then starts giggling like a child and you're a little ticked off.

**::He's learning sign language**:: you inform him. Well, at least you think he is. He seems to be getting somewhere, understanding the easier words and phrases, but you have quite the vocabulary with your hands so half the time he has no idea what you're talking about unless you write it down.

"That thtupid athhole can't learn shit." he declares, pointing a finger directly in your face. It was a lot less threatening than it was probably intended to be.

You sigh through your nose, sick of this little feud already **::You could at least give him a chance. Fucker got nobody but me on his side. Didn't you used to be friends?::**

He hums in annoyance, which could be considered cute, but he's also biting his lip hard enough to draw blood so it comes off as creepy "I can't be friendth with that pthycho athdweller. Did he tell you about the time he tried to burn down our old highthchool?"

**::Yes he did. I know it was you::** you sign, frustrated.

He appears as if he glitches for a second, a tremor running through his entire body. And then he kind of explodes.

"No, no he thaid he'd never tell anyone! He'th a dirty liar who'th going to rot in hell. He'th going to rot! Fuck, Kurloth, that'th not thomething we talk about." he screams, gripping onto your arm with iron force.

**::You were just talking about it::** you manage to sign despite his holding onto you.

He shakes his head "No, no it hath to be him. Cronuth did it. Pleathe."

You don't know what to do here. This is obviously a bigger deal in Mituna's psyche than you thought. Well, Cronus was more than a little torn up about the whole thing but Mituna got the better end of the deal, so this must be genuinely traumatic for him. An idea strikes you as you pet his wild hair, the Gemini slowly calms down at your touch. Maybe you could find a solution in this.

**::We can never talk about it again::** you inform him, signing slowly to keep his attention **::If you promise to be nice to Cronus. And let him sleep here::**

He giggles through the almost-tears he was holding back "What, tho I can lithen to you guyth fucking? Yeah, okay, whatever. Let'th do thomething elthe, okay?"

This was easier and more emotional than you were expecting. The general basis of this was getting to the point that Cronus was allowed in your shared apartment- even if he didn't know about this yet. Well, it had been somewhat successful. Maybe one day you could even convince your two favourite guys to be friends again.

"Kurloth! Mario kart! Now!" he yells from the couch, beating the cushion next to him with a balled up fist. Yeah, you could probably do that.

**October 21st - Button**

You push him through the door, assuring him that no, Mituna is not in tonight and that he would be allowed here anyway under recent events. He doesn't believe you about that second part, but you're not too bothered about that. He'll know you're right at some point.

Dinner was paid for by you tonight, which you are more than proud about. It's not like you have much money, like, at all, since so far you've been freeloading off Mituna (whose home is paid for by his parents) and what little money you have is what was saved over from the part time job you had before you moved. You wish your dad would pay for, you know, anything, but that doesn't matter right now. Dinner was kind of cheap but Cronus didn't seem to notice, and now you have him exactly where you want him.

Right, this is it. This is the night you're getting his pants off. You've been incredibly curious about this ever since you realised you weren't 100% certified straight, and you're tired of waiting.

"So, uh, you got any drink left over?" he asks you. He looks nervous. Maybe he's caught on that you want to do more than kissing tonight. Or it's possible that he's still just awkward about being in the apartment. He's not exactly the most intuitive guy you've ever met.

You throw him the bottle and move to the kitchen to make drinks that don't taste like piss for once. Everything he mixes tastes disgusting. When you steal the bottle back from him he makes the most indignant noise about it before realising that you're going to give him something better. Hell fucking yeah you're going to give this kid something better. Idiot deserves it.

He drinks slowly, and you realise that you've been too caught up in your thoughts to realise that you've been awkwardly quiet since you got in. He must be seriously uncomfortable- you're being pretty weird.

Time to get comfortable, then. You drain the last of the bottle and, casually as possible, approach where he's leaning on the counter "What you lookin' at? I got something on my face?"

You shake your head, placing a hand on either side of him on the counter. He finally understands where you're going with this- jesus, you thought he'd get there sooner- and he leans up to kiss you. It's still pretty sloppy, but he's improved in the short time you've been together. To be fair, you've spent an unholy amount of time making out. Or holy and fantastic, depending on how you look at it.

His hands snake up around your neck and you pull him closer. This is nice, but you're used to it. After a while frustration wins out and you just decide to go for it and reach for the button on his jeans "Really?" He asks, one eyebrow raised comically. You nod and he groans in the most relieved way.

"Oh thank fuck, I thought we'd never get there. Get your god damn pants off already." He says as he strips off his shirt. You're momentarily distracted by this but grab his hand anyway, grinning as you pull him into your bedroom.

Wow. You really wish you'd cleaned up in here, but it's too late to think about that now "I thought you were gonna be weird about this or something." He confesses and you kick your shoes off, and you shake your head, slightly annoyed by this assumption. You thought _he'd_ be weird about this. Well, that was a lot of time wasted "What? You could have been totally weird about this. You were straight, like, a week ago."

You roll your eyes and push him on your bed, kissing him fiercely. You are so happy this is finally happening. You go for the button again, pulling his jeans down off his hips.

Oh _fuck_ yes.

**October 22****nd**** – Mornings**

When you wake up there's a satisfying warmth radiating from your bed. You shift a little and discover that there's another human curled into your side. What the fuck?

Oh, right, Cronus. Memories from last night flash through your mind and you can't help but grin like an idiot while this idiot right here drools in his sleep. There's a cold pool of saliva running down the crook of your neck and you can't decide whether that's cute or disgusting. Probably disgusting, but you don't really mind.

You should probably go shower or something. While feeling pretty satisfied, you also feel like you haven't showered in a week, even though you showered yesterday. You nudge Cronus in a half-hearted attempt to get him off of you but he only grumbles something unintelligible and holds you tighter. As cute as that is, it's also inconvenient for your showering plans. The clock reads two in the afternoon. You_ never_ sleep in that late. You push him around a little and one of his eyes open.

"Kurloz, I swear to god if you wake me up for anything other than sex I will castrate you." He growls, and you roll your eyes. You flick his forehead and he bats your hand away, but pulls you closer towards him in a weak effort to keep you in bed. Eventually you remove his iron grip from your body and roll out from the sheets, feet firmly on the floor and surprise yourself with your complete nudity. He stares at you from under the covers that cover him up to the nose, and you know what he does? He _laughs_ at you.

"Nice tattoo, idiot." He says, and rolls back over to curl up in the still-warm bed. You wish you had the same disregard for life in general. It would be nice to be able to sleep in and not feel like you wasted your day, but here you are, up and ready while he snores like an invalid.

Sometimes you question your life choices, like that stupid Capricorn tattoo on your lower back. Trust you of all people to get a tramp stamp. You pull on a pair of sweatpants to travel to the bathroom, because fuck only knows what Mituna's doing or if he's even back yet.

This is answered for you as a cloth is thrown directly in your face. You remove it to take a look and find it to be Cronus' shirt. Whoops, this could be awkward.

"Have thome fun?" the Gemini cackles. You press your hands to your temples in an attempt to block out his laughter. You're not ready for this yet. You make a point to walk in the opposite direction "Oh, come on, Kurloth, guy talk with me! Wath it good? Did he cry after?"

You give him the nastiest look you can manage, but it doesn't do much. He tries to follow you into the bathroom but you don't let him. There's not enough time for this and you're not in the mood for dealing with it. Your shower is quick and the hot water is nice- you're kind of… sticky. Ew. Okay. When you come out clean and dry Mituna is nowhere to be found. Oh no.

"No, thith one'th better. He wath thtoned off hith ath here." Mituna giggles, scrolling through his phone as a shirtless and half-asleep Cronus laughs along with him.

This image is wrong on so many levels.

Cronus waves at you when you enter, standing in the doorway and confused beyond belief "Hey chief, what up?"

**::What are you doing?::** you ask them. Cronus narrows his eyes, not really understanding, while Mituna gets it right away.

"You thaid I had to be nice to Cronuth. Not to you. Look at thethe amathing pictureth." He turns the screen towards you. What constitutes as 'amazing pictures' turns out be a series of unflattering mugshots of you while stoned. This was not what you had in mind when you wanted them to get along. You manage to shoo Mituna from the premises, which isn't hard when he's laughing at you. Mildly irritated, you stand in front of Cronus who still hasn't gotten out of bed.

"What?" he grins up from the mattress. You shake your head and throw his shirt at him and he grudgingly puts it on before finally crawling out from underneath the sheets. And he's still not wearing pants. Amazing.

Unable to believe this, you scramble around for your notebook _'So you were just sitting there naked when Mituna was in here? What the fuck?'_

He reads the note and shrugs "It's not like he knew. So I guess he has to be nice to me now, huh? You really tryin' to fix this. Nice."

'_Nice is fucking right. Want to watch cartoons?'_ you suggest. He raises an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Cartoons? Lame. Yeah, sure, whatever." He grumbles, looking around for his pants. He's probably the cutest thing you've ever seen, in a gross, stupid, annoying sort of way. You can practically see the future arguments already, but right now everything seems to be working out just fine.

**Yeah, I know, it's kind of bad. More snapshots next update, but these ones will be Cronus-centric. Nice. Promise I'll update sooner next time!**

**Thanks for reading ! – Jak x**


	10. Chapter 10

**Holla and welcome back to this... whatever this is. I wrote this today. A 4000 word chapter. In one sitting. Because I was late to update and felt bad. Be proud of me. Serious Ampora bonding ahead you have been warned.******

**WARNING: suicide mention and serious disassociation because, hey, that's what post-suicidal depression does to you.******

**October 27th - Double date****  
><strong>  
>Your name is Cronus Ampora and this is absolute bullshit.<p>

Okay, so maybe Mituna's being shockingly nice to you for no tangible reason, and maybe Latula is a genuinely cool person that a few months ago you'd have jumped at the chance to hang out with, but now that is not the case. Since you bagged yourself a Kurloz you've lacked any initiative to be social, which isn't exactly a good thing but hey, you're lazy. Most of your time these days is pretty much just work and sex and occasionally sleep. This is it. You're living the dream.

Honestly, no, you're not. Your dream involves no work, inheriting a shitload of money from your dad (that you're sure he has stashed somewhere) and moving to Vegas where you can rent an overpriced apartment and have a different partner every night. That last bit has kind of gone out the window since Kurloz and all, but the rest of it is still relevant. You wonder if Kurloz would be up for moving to Vegas one day.

But no, back to the issue at hand. Kurloz has recently decided that he's not paying enough attention to his regular friends, and has arranged a double date with mr and mrs radical. This is possibly the worst idea you have ever heard.

Neither of them like you or would ever spend time with you of their own free will, but somehow Kurloz's creepy manipulative prowess and iron willpower has convinced everyone else that this could end up being a nice time. And those idiots bought it. You thought Latula was at least kind of smart but no, she's fallen prey to the sheer idiocy that is Kurloz's imagination. There is literally no way for this to end well.

You haven't hung out with Mituna since high school. Hell, you haven't really hung out with anyone since high school, unless Kankri counts, which he kind of doesn't because Kankri's just as awful as you are. Despite your utter lack of enthusiasm you've taken a cold shower and dressed yourself appropriately for an evening of video games that should be about as exciting as slow torture. That is, kind of exciting depending which end you're on, but overall really very horrible.

"So, you're really pretty involved now, aren't you?" Eridan hums from his position on your bed. He's been pestering you non-stop about Kurloz ever since he caught the two of you 'making out'. You weren't even making out at the time. Stupid.

You grunt, pulling on one of your dad's hunting jackets, because you still haven't managed to get your one back. Kurloz is clinging to it like a god damned lifeline "Well, I've resigned myself to wasting time with people I hate just to make Kurloz happy, so if that's not involved then I don't know what is."

"I'd say that's cute, but it's you, so actually it's just kind of gross." he says, tapping away at his phone. You ignore him, even though this is about as close as the two of you ever get to being nice to each other "Hey, Cro, how'd you go about getting a boyfriend anyways?"

Well, that's a surprise right there. Eridan never asks you for advice or anything similar, having long ago decided that you're useless for anything other than a punching bag "Why do you wanna know?"

He sighs dramatically, jumping up from the bed but keeping the blanket draped over himself, much like a cape "God, I can't ask you one fuckin' question, can I? If you must know, there's someone I might be interested in, and I'm trying to figure out how to make it go somewhere."

"Who is it? Can't help none if I don't know them." you say as you comb your hair. You don't actually have any advice on this matter- you never really initiated anything with Kurloz, he just kind of kissed you once and it never stopped. Really you're just curious about who your little brothers crushing on so that you can make fun of him later.

He struggles for a minute, probably aware of what you're trying here but that's what big brothers are for, right? Oh you are going to rip the shit out of him later "Well, you remember when I dated Vris for like, a week, right?"

"Yep. Little Serket." you nod "Those girls are hot as hell- crazy, though."

Eridan scoffs "You sound like you fuckin' know. It's not like you ever got close enough to even know what Aranea _smells_ like, so shut your fuckin' lie hole. At least I got so second base." he scalds you, and the mental image of your little brother getting it on with a Serket is more effective than any cold shower would ever be "But yeah, her friend Eq has been talking to me lately and I'm meeting up with him later to look at this bike he's been working on. Of course I don't give half a shit about his stupid bike, but I wanna know if there's any mysterious secret to getting a guy to kiss you."

"Eq? As in Equius Zahhak?" you ask incredulously, and when he nods you burst out laughing "Holy shit, Danny, why? Why are you putting yourself through that hellstorm of clingyness and sweating problems?"

He makes an inhuman noise of disgust and scowls at you "Eq and Horuss are two completely different people. He's not clingy- and yeah, I'm aware of your Zahhak being disgusting and whatever but I'm not Nitram and I don't put up with bullshit."

"Yeah, okay chief, whatever. I'm late so I'm gonna ignore you now and leave before you get all hopped up on this Zahhak bullshit." you head for the door and shoo him from your room so that you can lock it. Your family has no regard for privacy and you don't need your dad going through your stuff again- last time he did that he found your handcuffs. You're not even sure why you have those.

He complies and practically runs down the stairs, your blanket still draped over him. God knows when you're going to get that back "See, I knew you would make it weird. This is why I don't tell you stuff."

You decide to drive to Kurloz's place, since you don't think you're staying over and you want an easy ride home. If you can manage to make this evening short it would be something close to a miracle. There are only so many excuses you can make to leave early- maybe you can offer to pick Eridan up from Zahhak's place or something. Yeah, that could probably work. You get there sooner than you'd like to and stand hesitantly by the door for a whole five minutes before it opens of its own accord.

And there's Kurloz, looking all too happy to see you. Jesus, even you're not that happy to see you. Stupid Kurloz and his stupid smile making you feel all special. You can't wait to go back home.

He leans down to kiss you and it's awkward, because you don't actually want him to. You're not entirely sure why, but recently you've been... you don't know. Unhappy? Creeped out? Disturbed by the fact that someone is actually willing to date you and take it seriously? In all honesty you were pretty used to the idea of being single your whole life, and this happy functioning relationship stuff is getting to your head. Sometimes you think you'd be better off alone.

But this is all too nice to turn down at the moment, and Latula even bothers to talk to you when you take your place in the last remaining seat "Cronus! You're late, bro. Missed out on some serious gaming biz."

Kurloz writes something down for her and she laughs at it. When you ask what it is he steals back the notepad and won't let you look. You get up and try to wrestle it off him but to no success, the short-lived fight ending in him simply holding the pad above his head. Damn him being insanely tall.

"Hey, athhole, you gonna play or what?" Mituna grouches, practically throwing a controller at you. Fortunately it's attached to the console and stops halfway through the air, ungracefully clattering to the floor.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. What are we playing?" you sit back down, eyeing Kurloz disdainfully, but he just grins back. He thinks this is a joke, doesn't he? Asshole.

You end up playing Halo for about an hour. You're not really the gaming type, being more interested in, you know, stuff that isn't for nerds and idiots like these guys, so you do horribly throughout the whole experience. At some point everyone gets bored of you being terrible- at least you assume that's why they changed the game. Nobody said anything but you think that has something to do with whatever threats and crazy mind voodoo Kurloz has going on- and for some ungodly reason they put on mario kart. Why the hell did it have to be mario kart? You swear this shit is for five year olds or something.

But they're all really into it and as it turns out you kind of aren't that bad at this game. See: made for five year olds. It's kind of fun, though, you guess, especially when you tail Mituna for an entire lap and hit him with red shells every five seconds.

"Holy fuck, Cronuth, thtop it!" he growls, the little car on the screen spinning around in dismay.

"Never." you reply, smirking. You've been unusually quiet today- you think you might just be in a bad mood because of the others being here. When it's just you and Kurloz you never seem to shut up. He seems to have noticed this, because all night he's been trying to get your attention. He keeps nudging and poking you in a poor attempt to get on your nerves, but mostly just so he can cheat and get ahead of you in this dumb racing game.

After too many rounds for you to count Latula wins, which is only expected. She's good at pretty much everything and the rest of you are either mediocre gamers or just plain stupid. You reckon you fall under both of these categories, seeing as you're more than in the mood to be negative tonight.

"Aw yeah!" she laughs, giving Mituna a high five for his efforts "Who's up for shots?"

You decline, seeing as you're driving home tonight and are totally not up for drinking, but when Kurloz tries to get you to stay over you use the excuse of picking up Eridan later. He just looks plain disappointed and you feel a little bad.

He writes something down for you and you're kind of hesitant to read it. He's a lot easier to ignore when he's not directly trying to tell you something _'You're being weird. What's up?'_

On impulse you flip one of the pages back over to see what he said to Latula earlier. For some reason you're kind of bitter about that. He doesn't realise what you're doing until it's too late, and you read the scrawling of _'He's never late to anything. Probably nervous about you guys being here.'_

You show him his old note and he flinches back at the glare you shoot him. You are so not in the mood for this. He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly and motions towards his room, probably so that you can go be angry at him without Latula and Mituna listening in. You comply, ignoring the look the other two give you. Once you're in there you stand leaning on the windowsill with your arms crossed while he shuts the door quietly as possible. He then turns to you, arms open, ready for whatever verbal beating you're about to give him.

It doesn't come. You just stare at him while he stands there like an idiot. He's confused as hell by this point.

He gives in first, taking out his notepad _'Seriously, what's the matter? Do you want the others to leave?'_

A couple hours ago you were telling Eridan that you and Kurloz were pretty involved. You were telling him that you were willing to sit through this to make Kurloz happy- and it's not even that bad. You were totally fine all evening. Mituna and Latula didn't do anything wrong and you actually found yourself somewhat enjoying their company. And right now it's just you and Kurloz, and you should be happy to see his stupid face.

So why do you feel so sick?

You think of the multiple occasions that you've slept together and while you remember it being nice at the time, now it makes you want to throw up. This isn't how a relationship should go. You should be with someone that actually makes you happy, right? And right now you are so far from happy it's unbelievable. But you wouldn't say you were sad, either. Or angry. Just kind of... itchy. Itchy and restless and just wanting to get as far away from Kurloz as physically possible.

Instead of answering him you pull out your phone and text Eridan a quick _'I should pick you up from Zahhak's place. Just tell me vwhen.'__  
><em>  
>Kurloz is getting seriously uncomfortable now, hopping from foot to foot in a strange attempt to calm his nerves. You're actually making him nervous. Good. He should be nervous- not that you even know why yet, or have any idea why he's pissing you off so much. Everything just feels so wrong, and your mind flashes back to the absolute last thing you want to think about. That pathetic fucking suicide attempt. Oh fuck, oh no. Not this again.<p>

You've figured it out now, at least a little bit. You're disassociating again- something the therapist your dad hired after the attempt warned you about. And now you feel even worse. You're having some kind of post-suicide breakdown and here you are taking it out on Kurloz, who has literally done nothing to warrant your unnecessary wrath. He's only ever tried to be nice to you and you're just fucking it up, like you do with everything.

Your phone vibrates and you look down to see that Eridan texted back a lot sooner than expected _'pick me up ASAP mad shit gone down and I'm invviting you to the bitchfest.'_

That didn't bode well. Either way you're still just standing here, lacking the will or energy to tell Kurloz what's going on. You kind of just don't want to. It doesn't seem like something he should know. Sure, he's your boyfriend and- fuck, you lost yourself here. You really just want to go to sleep or something. To get up early and go to work tomorrow like a god damned normal person.

"I gotta go get Danny. Dad doesn't like it when he stays out late." you say, voice surprisingly monotonous. God, you don't want it to sound like that. It sounds like you're mad at Kurloz, which you kind of are, but at the same time totally aren't? Disassociation is a bitch. You can't get a grip on your own thought process.

Kurloz blinks at you owlishly and suddenly looks very drained. He just nods his head and goes to open the door for you. This has to be the lowest you've felt in a while. He's still being so nice and you're being the biggest asshole to ever walk the earth. The worst part is you kind of can't stop being an asshole right now. It's taking enough out of you just to think about driving all the way to Zahhak's garage and then listen to Eridan complain about whatever new bullshit he brought onto himself. You really wish you hadn't woken up today.

You take a moment before exiting the bedroom to lean into Kurloz, wrapping your arms around his middle and just appreciating his warmth. It instantly makes you feel a little better, having his stupid bony noodle arms looped around your back, and it's nice that he doesn't question you. Actually once you're here and holding him you don't want to leave anymore, but you know as soon as you let go it'll be back to that strange feeling of emptiness that you've come to associate with being alone.

When you leave the room Mituna and Latula call out to you, him with a simple "Hey dickhole!" and her with "Yo Cronus, where you going?" but you don't reply to either, opting to leave very quickly and try to not make more of a fool out of yourself than you already have.

You're at Zahhak's garage in record time, smoking a cigarette out the window as you pull up, and Eridan is standing on the corner of the street, looking about as pissed off and uncomfortable as you are. He shivers in the October air and hops into your car with surprisingly minimal complaint. He could only have been out there for fifteen minutes or so, but he seems more distracted than anything.

"So." he starts slowly after a good five minutes of neither talking "Basically, I fucked up. I fucked up real good."

"Oh?" is the only reply you give, but this seems to be enough for him because he just keeps talking.

"I read this entire situation all wrong. Eq wasn't interested and I made a dick of myself. Turns out he literally just wanted someone's opinion on this bike he's working on- I mean, sure, it's pretty cool he built that all by himself from scrap metal, I'm impressed and all, but I thought there'd be more making out or something. I totally freaked him out, too. God, how come you have a boyfriend and I don't? What the fuck is wrong with the world."

You take a second at the stop light to collect your thoughts "I might not have one for long, so don't worry about that." you say slowly. He looks at you like you said you'd murdered a kitten.

"And what do you mean by that? What happened to Kurloz?" he asks, and you didn't realise until right now that he might have been just a little bit happy for you in your new found relationship. Well, there's another thing you ruined right there.

"It got kinda weird. Nothing really happened, but, I..." you trail off, keeping your eyes trained exclusively on the road. Sure, Eridan would understand if you told him what was going on, he had to sit in on a couple of your therapy sessions too. God that whole ordeal was so embarassing "I think I'm disassociating again."

He's quiet until you pull up in front of your house, and as you turn the engine off he's staring at you "Fuck no. You're not gonna pull that shit again, you hear me?"

"No, I'm not gonna-" you start to protest but are cut off by a tight hug. It only lasts a couple seconds, and then he's very suddenly out the car door, not having worn a seatbelt. He opens yours for you too.

"You're going to bed. Right now." he says, gripping tight on your arm and dragging you all the way inside.

It's a rare thing for Eridan to try and take care of you, and it's a very special brand of care that involves a whole lot of pushing and aggression until you're fully looked after and happily tucked in bed. It only usually happens when you're ill, and you suppose this kind of counts as ill, because before you know it he's got you under your covers with a steaming cup of tea in hand.

"I'll be right back." he declares, tightly knit frown never leaving his face, and you shift a little as you watch him leave. For some reason Eridan's weird affection always makes you feel better.

Your phone vibrates and for a second you nearly shit yourself because oh god Kurloz is calling you, and then you remember that there is no fucking way Kurloz would ever make a phone call and so you pick it up with a short "Hey."

_"Cronus! Rad, okay, I got the number right."_ comes Latula's overly enthusiastic voice from the other end. Why the hell is she calling you? You saw her under an hour ago.

"'Tula, uh, what's up?" you manage not to let your voice crack, but this is making you nervous. Everything got real weird real quick and this is so not cool.

She hums a little, as if debating whether to carry through with this or not "_So, uh, I was just kind of wondering what you said to Kurloz? Me and Tuna had to go back to mine he was grouching so bad."_

Oh, fuck, you managed to really piss him off "Why? What did he say?"  
><em><br>__"Well, you left real quick and we were all wondering why, and Tuna said, word for word,"_ she broke away from the receiver as a loud '_Hi!_' echoed from the other side. She came back after a second of what sounded like a fight for the phone _"Sorry, uh, he said 'what died in his underwear?' and Kurloz kind of threw the toaster at him."_

You do a mental double take "He threw a toaster at Mituna." you say bluntly.

She sighs _"Yep. Ripped it right out the plug socket. Missed by a mile, but we still hightailed it out of there. Apparently Kurloz is no fun when his beau walks out on him."_

"I did walk out on him, didn't I?" you say sadly. She coughs and you realise how weird that was "Sorry. I'll do something about it. I don't know."

You hang up immediately, feeling yourself start to freak out. This is when Eridan returns with a mattress and a metric fuckton of pillows. He sees you put down the phone and you know you've been caught "Who was that?"

"Latula." you say, and when he doesn't recognise the name you elaborate "Pyrope. Called to say Kurloz is pissed off. Threw a toaster at Captor."

"Your boyfriend threw a toaster at Mituna Captor because you had a mental freak out and went home early." he states, and you nod in reply. He just shrugs "I'm gonna accept that as it is. No use questioning the stupid."

"Kurloz ain't stupid." you defend pitifully, piling the blanket on top of yourself so that you can curl up into a ball. Eridan continues to create a makeshift bed on the floor. Fucker brought his whole mattress in and everything. You're a little impressed by his commitment.

"He's dating you. Of course he's stupid." he states, setting your alarm for work before getting under his own blanket "And as soon as you're feeling better you're going to go make up with him. I don't care what you say, you're not letting go of this that easy."

You smile like an idiot from inside your blanket nest "You're sleeping on my floor."

He rolls his eyes "Yeah, idiot. I'm staying in here to make sure you don't off yourself in the middle of the night. If you haven't noticed yet, I kind of really give a fuck."

You feel stupid, but you're sure he feels stupider, seeing as he's gone kind of pink in embarrassment. You never tell each other that you care- it's not the Ampora style. You pride yourselves on being unemotional to the point that it's inhuman. Thinking about it you realise that that's kind of unhealthy and probably a contributing factor to your plethora of mental complications, but hey, you're working on it.

"I'll talk to Kurloz tomorrow." you tell him. Well, you'll try, but if you gathered anything from Latula's phone call (in which you just realised you never answered her question) it's that Kurloz is mad. Or frustrated. Or upset. Whatever kind of emotion prompts people to throw toasters.

"Good." is the only answer you get. It appears that you've emotionally taxed Eridan to the point of one-word answers, which can't be good because usually he never shuts his mouth. You don't have a lot of time to think about this before he shuts off the light and you're plunged into darkness.

You really hope this shitty disassociation goes away soon. You might drink a whole load of coffee tomorrow morning. Coffee and cigarettes always fix your problems. Maybe then you can stop ruining everything.

**So, okay, i wrote this all in one sitting so give me a little credit. Also this snapshot turned out longer than expected so i kind of just turned it into a full chapter. So, Kurloz chapter next or do we want another one from Cronus's POV because I'm good for both. Sorry about all the sad I didn't mean to drop this huge messed up mental sad bomb on everyone but hey look at the weird places Cronus's mind takes me. Fun, right? But seriously tell me in a review whether I should write the make up scene or just absolutely fuck everything over and make this get even weirder. I have no idea what the 'even weirder' entails yet. Haha oh well it's up to you.******

**Thanks for reading ! - Jak x**


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